Andrea Campoleoni (Brussels):

Higher-spin gravity

Abstract:

Even if a priori there are no bounds on the spin that one can associate to free particles, the construction of interacting field theories for particles of spin greater than two is fraught with many difficulties. However, String Theory contains massive excitations of arbitrary spin and many examples of interacting higher-spin gauge theories are now available. We will review how these theories circumvent the "classic" no-go arguments against higher-spin interactions, and we then focus on three-dimensional toy models. In this context many technical issues drastically simplify, but one can still study black holes carrying higher-spin charges and uncover some of the peculiarities that higher-spin gauge symmetries bring about.

download document (pdf, 25,97 MB)