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Ghosts in metric-affine higher order curvature gravity

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arxiv 1901.08988 v2 pith:AJZN7ZU5 submitted 2019-01-25 gr-qc hep-th

classification gr-qchep-th
keywords gravitymetric-affinetheoriescurvaturehigherorderadditionalconstraints
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We disprove the widespread belief that higher order curvature theories of gravity in the metric-affine formalism are generally ghost-free. This is clarified by considering a sub-class of theories constructed only with the Ricci tensor and showing that the non-projectively invariant sector propagates ghost-like degrees of freedom. We also explain how these pathologies can be avoided either by imposing a projective symmetry or additional constraints in the gravity sector. Our results put forward that higher order curvature gravity theories generally remain pathological in the metric-affine (and hybrid) formalisms and highlight the key importance of the projective symmetry and/or additional constraints for their physical viability and, by extension, of general metric-affine theories.

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Cited by 2 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Infrared foundations for quantum geometry II: Catalogue of all torsion-like theories including new ghost-tachyon-free cases

    hep-th 2025-07 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    A systematic catalogue of symmetric pair-antisymmetric rank-three field theories yields 22 ghost-tachyon-free models, all propagating vector torsion and none propagating scalar or pseudoscalar torsion.

  2. Gravitational waves in Cubic Metric-Affine Gravity

    gr-qc 2025-11 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    New exact pp-wave solutions in cubic metric-affine gravity have dynamical torsion and nonmetricity and cause a scalar polarization mode in gravitational waves.

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