Higher Spin Gravity online-club by Yi Zhang

The next seminar of the Higher Spin Gravity online-club series, co-organised by UMONS and the University of Tours, will be given by Yi Zhang (AEI Potsdam and IPhT Saclay).

Gravitational anomalies of higher-spin fields

In this talk, I will consider gravitational anomalies of symmetric tensor-spinors (fermionic higher spin fields). This is done by using the Atiyah-Singer index theorem and the spectrum of ghosts. We find new anomaly cancellations within an infinite tower of these fermionic higher spin fields with alternating chiralities. Time permitting, I will also talk about the antisymmetric case (fermionic p-forms). The ghost spectrum is found using the Batalin-Vilkovisky field-antifield formalism. We find an intriguing matching of anomalies between a chiral fermionic p-form and a (D-p-1)-form.

The talk is based on 2109.03963 and 2205.xxxxx

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/92757188305?pwd=U3dxYzVIY3dieWlPckNSNHl4RlNXQT09

Meeting ID: 927 5718 8305; Passcode: cL8d07