1201.6504 (Ibrahim Gullu)

Massive Higher Derivative Gravity Theories    [PDF]

Ibrahim Gullu

In this thesis massive higher derivative gravity theories are analyzed in
some detail. One-particle scattering amplitude between two covariantly
conserved sources mediated by a graviton exchange is found at tree-level in $D$
dimensional (Anti)-de Sitter and flat spacetimes for the most general quadratic
curvature theory augmented with the Pauli-Fierz mass term. From the amplitude
expression, the Newtonian potential energies are calculated for various cases.
Also, from this amplitude and the propagator structure, a three dimensional
unitary theory is identified. In the second part of the thesis, the found three
dimensional unitary theory is studied in more detail from a canonical point of
view. The general higher order action is written in terms of gauge-invariant
functions both in flat and de Sitter backgrounds. The analysis is extended by
adding static sources, spinning masses and the gravitational Chern-Simons term
separately to the theory in the case of flat spacetime. For all cases the
microscopic spectrum and the masses are found. In the discussion of curved
spacetime, the masses are found in the relativistic and non-relativistic
limits. In the Appendix, some useful calculations that are frequently used in
the bulk of the thesis are given.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.6504