Nonlocal gravity with worldline inversion symmetry

Abel, Steven; Buoninfante, Luca; Mazumdar, Anupam

Abstract

We construct a quadratic curvature theory of gravity whose graviton propagator around the Minkowski background respects wordline inversion symmetry, the particle approximation to modular invariance in string theory. This symmetry automatically yields a corresponding gravitational theory that is nonlocal, with the action containing infinite order differential operators. As a consequence, despite being a higher order derivative theory, it is ghost-free and has no degrees of freedom besides the massless spin-2 graviton of Einstein’s general relativity. By working in the linearised regime we show that the point-like singularities that afflict the (local) Einstein’s theory are smeared out.

Citation

Abel, S., Buoninfante, L., & Mazumdar, A. (2020). Nonlocal gravity with worldline inversion symmetry. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2020(1), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep01%282020%29003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 26, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jan 2, 2020
• Publication Date: Jan 31, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 13, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 13, 2020
• Journal: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Print ISSN: 1126-6708
• Electronic ISSN: 1029-8479
• Publisher: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2020
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep01%282020%29003
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1279359