hide
Free keywords:
High Energy Physics - Theory, hep-th
Abstract:
We study the relation between the frame-like and metric-like formulation of
higher-spin gauge theories in three space-time dimensions. We concentrate on
the theory that is described by an SL(3) x SL(3) Chern-Simons theory in the
frame-like formulation. The metric-like theory is obtained by eliminating the
generalised spin connection by its equation of motion, and by expressing
everything in terms of the metric and a spin-3 Fronsdal field. We give an exact
map between fields and gauge parameters in both formulations. To work out the
gauge transformations explicitly in terms of metric-like variables, we have to
make a perturbative expansion in the spin-3 field. We describe an algorithm how
to do this systematically, and we work out the gauge transformations to cubic
order in the spin-3 field. We use these results to determine the gauge algebra
to this order, and explain why the commutator of two spin-3 transformations
only closes on-shell.
