Fully Covariant Van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov Discontinuity, and Absence Thereof

Abstract

In both old and recent literature, it has been argued that the celebrated van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov (vDVZ) discontinuity of massive gravity is an artifact due to linearization of the true equations of motion. In this letter, we investigate that claim. First, we exhibit an explicit -albeit somewhat arbitrary- fully covariant set of equations of motion that, upon linearization, reduce to the standard Pauli-Fierz equations. We show that the vDVZ discontinuity still persists in that non-linear, covariant theory. Then, we restrict our attention to a particular system that consistently incorporates massive gravity: the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) model. DGP is fully covariant and does not share the arbitrariness and imperfections of our previous covariantization, and its linearization exhibits a vDVZ discontinuity. Nevertheless, we explicitly show that the discontinuity does disappear in the fully covariant theory, and we explain the reason for this phenomenon.