Generalised Proca Theories.- [PDF] - [Article]

Lavinia Heisenberg

In this work we will summarise the recent progress made in constructing consistent theories for a massive vector field with derivative self-interactions. The construction is such that only the three desired polarisations of the Proca field propagate. We apply a systematic construction of the interactions by using the anti-symmetric Levi-Civita tensors. This finite family of allowed derivative self-interactions can be also obtained from the decoupling limit by imposing that the St\"uckelberg field only contains second derivatives both with itself and with the transverse modes. These interactions can be generalised to curved backgrounds, which relies on the presence of non-minimal couplings and constitutes a general family of vector-tensor interactions. We discuss also some extensions of these interactions by alleviating the restriction of second order nature of the equations or by imposing global symmetries. We will also comment on their interesting cosmological applications.