Uniformizing higher-spin equations

Abstract

Vasiliev's higher-spin theories in various dimensions are uniformly represented as a simple system of equations. These equations and their gauge invariances are based on two superalgebras and have a transparent algebraic meaning. For a given higher-spin theory these algebras can be inferred from the vacuum higher-spin symmetries. The proposed system of equations admits a concise AKSZ formulation. We also discuss novel higher-spin systems including partially-massless and massive fields in AdS, as well as conformal and massless off-shell fields.