Monopoles for gravitation and for higher spin fields

We consider massless higher spin gauge theories with both electric and magnetic sources, with a special emphasis on the spin two case. We write the equations of motion at the linear level (with conserved external sources) and introduce Dirac strings so as to derive the equations from a variational principle. We then derive a quantization condition that generalizes the familiar Dirac quantization condition, and which involves the conserved charges associated with the asymptotic symmetries for higher spins. Next we discuss briefly how the result extends to the nonlinear theory. This is done in the context of gravitation, where the Taub-NUT solution provides the exact solution of the field equations with both types of sources. We rederive, in analogy with electromagnetism, the quantization condition from the quantization of the angular momentum. We also observe that the Taub-NUT metric is asymptotically flat at spatial infinity in the sense of Regge and Teitelboim (including their parity conditions). It follows, in particular, that one can consistently consider in the variational principle configurations with different electric and magnetic masses. © 2006 The American Physical Society.

Consistent deformations of [p,p]-type gauge field theories

Using BRST-cohomological techniques, we analyze the consistent deformations of theories describing free tensor gauge fields whose symmetries are represented by Young tableaux made of two columns of equal length p, p > 1. Under the assumptions of locality and Poincaré invariance, we find that there is no consistent deformation of these theories that non-trivially modifies the gauge algebra and/or the gauge transformations. Adding the requirement that the deformation contains no more than two derivatives, the only possible deformation is a cosmological-constant-like term. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.