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Phys. Rev. D 71, 024018 (2005) [8 pages]

Duality in linearized gravity

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Marc Henneaux
Physique Théorique et Mathématique and International Solvay Institutes, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus Plaine C. P. 231, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium and Centro de Estudios Científicos (CECS), Valdivia, Chile

Claudio Teitelboim
Centro de Estudios Científicos (CECS), Valdivia, Chile

Received 3 September 2004; published 19 January 2005

We show that duality transformations of linearized gravity in four dimensions, i.e., rotations of the linearized Riemann tensor and its dual into each other, can be extended to the dynamical fields of the theory so as to be symmetries of the action and not just symmetries of the equations of motion. Our approach relies on the introduction of two superpotentials, one for the spatial components of the spin-2 field and the other for their canonically conjugate momenta. These superpotentials are two-index, symmetric tensors. They can be taken to be the basic dynamical fields and appear locally in the action. They are simply rotated into each other under duality. In terms of the superpotentials, the canonical generator of duality rotations is found to have a Chern-Simons-like structure, as in the Maxwell case.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.71.024018
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.71.024018
PACS:
04.20.Cv, 04.20.Fy