Eur. Phys. J. C (2018) 78: 923
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-6410-z

Letter

The spectrum of symmetric teleparallel gravity

¹ Physics Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YB, UK
² Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 23, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden

^* e-mail: a.conroy@lancaster.ac.uk

Received: 5 April 2018
Accepted: 5 November 2018
Published online: 13 November 2018

Abstract

General Relativity and its higher derivative extensions have symmetric teleparallel reformulations in terms of the non-metricity tensor within a torsion-free and flat geometry. These notes present a derivation of the exact propagator for the most general infinite-derivative, even-parity and generally covariant theory in the symmetric teleparallel spacetime. The action made up of the non-metricity tensor and its contractions is decomposed into terms involving the metric and a gauge vector field and is found to complement the previously known non-local ghost- and singularity-free theories.