Perturbative analysis in higher-spin theories

Abstract

A new scheme of the perturbative analysis of the nonlinear HS equations is developed giving directly the final result for the successive application of the homotopy integrations which appear in the standard approach. It drastically simplifies the analysis and results from the application of the standard spectral sequence approach to the higher-spin covariant derivatives, allowing us in particular to reduce multiple homotopy integrals resulting from the successive application of the homotopy trick to a single integral. Efficiency of the proposed method is illustrated by various examples. In particular, it is shown how the Central on-shell theorem of the free theory immediately results from the nonlinear HS field equations with no intermediate computations.