Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We construct exact anti-de Sitter (AdS) waves and pp-waves in ghost-free multi-gravity beyond pairwise interactions for an arbitrary number $\mathcal{N}$ of vielbeins, in any spacetime dimension $D\geq3$. Deforming proportional AdS and Minkowski solutions along a common null direction reduces the full nonlinear field equations to coupled linear differential equations for the wave profiles, without restricting their amplitudes. The system is diagonalised in the same eigenbasis as the perturbative Fierz-Pauli mass matrix, separating the solutions into one massless and $\mathcal{N}-1$ massive eigenprofiles. We obtain explicit radial and transverse solutions and impose an AdS boundary falloff. This falloff admits the appropriate radial branch of every mode with non-negative squared mass and excludes profiles with negative squared masses, including logarithmic solutions at the Breitenlohner-Freedman threshold. We also relate the AdS waves to pp-waves through a local flat limit. Explicit examples exhibit wave configurations that cannot be reproduced by ghost-free pairwise theories, demonstrating that genuine multi-field interactions support new exact gravitational-wave solutions.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Flinckman, Joakim
Institutions: Stockholm University, AlbaNova
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7222472600