Eur. Phys. J. C (2018) 78: 277
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5762-8

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Probing the unitarity of the renormalizable theory of massive conformal gravity

Centro de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Estadual do Piauí, 64002-150, Teresina, PI, Brazil

^* e-mail: felfrafar@hotmail.com

Received: 15 July 2017
Accepted: 26 March 2018
Published online: 31 March 2018

Abstract

The presence of an unstable massive spin-2 ghost state in the renormalizable theory of massive conformal gravity leads to a pair of complex poles appearing in the first sheet of the energy plane. Here we show that the positions of these poles are gauge dependent, which makes the theory unitary.