Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: We analyze the stability issue of the vector and axial modes of the torsion and nonmetricity tensors around general backgrounds in the framework of cubic metric-affine gravity. We show that the presence of cubic order invariants defined from the curvature, torsion, and nonmetricity tensors allow the cancellation of the well-known instabilities arising in the vector and axial sectors of quadratic metric-affine gravity. For the resulting theory, we also obtain Reissner-Nordstr\"om-like black hole solutions with dynamical torsion and nonmetricity, which in general include massive tensor modes for these quantities, thus avoiding further no-go theorems that potentially prevent a consistent interaction of massless higher spin fields in the quantum regime.
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4409683543