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Notes on Strings and Higher Spins

A. Sagnotti

Abstract

These notes are devoted to the intriguing and still largely unexplored links between String Theory and Higher Spins, the types of excitations that lie behind its most cherished properties. A closer look at higher-spin fields provides some further clues that String Theory describes a broken phase of a Higher-Spin Gauge Theory. Conversely, string amplitudes contain a wealth of information on higher-spin interactions that can clarify long-standing issues related to their infrared behavior.

Notes on Strings and Higher Spins

Abstract

These notes are devoted to the intriguing and still largely unexplored links between String Theory and Higher Spins, the types of excitations that lie behind its most cherished properties. A closer look at higher-spin fields provides some further clues that String Theory describes a broken phase of a Higher-Spin Gauge Theory. Conversely, string amplitudes contain a wealth of information on higher-spin interactions that can clarify long-standing issues related to their infrared behavior.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 9 sections, 112 equations, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Free Higher Spins
  3. Free Symmetric Higher Spins
  4. Triplets and free String Field Theory
  5. Interacting Higher Spins
  6. Free HS fields in (A)dS backgrounds
  7. External Currents and the vDVZ Discontinuity
  8. String lessons for cubic HS couplings
  9. Four--point functions and beyond

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Factorization of an amplitude containing a "soft" emission.