Extracting bigravity from string theory

Abstract

Abstract The origin of the graviton from string theory is well understood: it corresponds to a massless state in closed string spectra, whose low-energy effective action, as extracted from string scattering amplitudes, is that of Einstein-Hilbert. In this work, we explore the possibility of such a string-theoretic emergence of ghost-free bimetric theory, a recently proposed theory that involves two dynamical metrics, that around particular backgrounds propagates the graviton and a massive spin-2 field, which has been argued to be a viable dark matter candidate. By choosing to identify the latter with a massive spin-2 state of open string spectra, we compute tree-level three-point string scattering amplitudes that describe interactions of the massive spin-2 with itself and with the graviton. With the mass of the external legs depending on the string scale, we discover that extracting the corresponding low-energy effective actions in four spacetime dimensions is a subtle but consistent process and proceed to appropriately compare them with bimetric theory. Our findings consist in establishing that string and bimetric theory provide to lowest order the same set of two-derivative terms describing the interactions of the massive spin-2 with itself and with the graviton, albeit up to numerical coefficient discrepancies, a fact that we analyze and interpret. We conclude with a mention of future investigations.