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  • Open Access

Can metric-affine gravity be saved?

Will Barker1,*, Carlo Marzo2,†, and Alessandro Santoni3,4,‡

  • 1Central European Institute for Cosmology and Fundamental Physics, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Slovance 1999/2, 182 00 Prague 8, Czechia
  • 2Laboratory for High Energy and Computational Physics, NICPB, Rävala 10, Tallinn 10143, Estonia
  • 3Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8–10, A-1040 Vienna, Austria
  • 4Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago, Chile

  • *Contact author: barker@fzu.cz
  • †Contact author: carlo.marzo@kbfi.ee
  • ‡Contact author: asantoni@uc.cl
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 044032 – Published 15 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1xqx-f57g

Abstract

Like general relativity, metric-affine gravity should be a viable effective quantum theory; otherwise, it is a mathematical curiosity without physical application. Assuming a perturbative quantum field theory, the universal, flat limit of metric-affine gravity offers a good foundation for model-building only when symmetry constraints are themselves sufficient to get rid of ghosts and tachyons in the spectrum of propagating particle states, without requiring any further tuning of the couplings. Using this symmetry-first criterion, we find that for parity-preserving models with a totally symmetric distortion, only massless spin-one and spin-three modes are possible besides the graviton. Moreover, no viable models result from gauge symmetries generated by a scalar field.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 044032– Published 15 August, 2025
  • Received 12 June 2025
  • Accepted 24 July 2025
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