A first-order approach to conformal gravity

We investigate whether a spontaneously-broken gauge theory of the group SU(2, 2) may be a viable alternative to general relativity. The basic ingredients of the theory are an SU(2, 2) gauge field A(mu) and a Higgs field W in the adjoint representation of the group with the Higgs field producing the symmetry breaking SU(2, 2) -> SO(1, 3) x SO(1, 1). The action for gravity is polynomial in {A(mu), W} and the field equations are first-order in derivatives of these fields. The new SO(1, 1) symmetry in the gravitational sector is interpreted in terms of an emergent local scale symmetry and the existence of 'conformalized' general relativity and fourth-order Weyl conformal gravity as limits of the theory is demonstrated. Maximally symmetric spacetime solutions to the full theory are found and stability of the theory around these solutions is investigated; it is shown that regions of the theory's parameter space describe perturbations identical to that of general relativity coupled to a massive scalar field and a massless one-form field. The coupling of gravity to matter is considered and it is shown that Lagrangians for all fields are naturally gauge-invariant, polynomial in fields and yield first-order field equations; no auxiliary fields are introduced. Familiar Yang-Mills and Klein-Gordon type Lagrangians are recovered on-shell in the general-relativistic limit of the theory. In this formalism, the general-relativistic limit coincides with a spontaneous breaking of scale invariance and it is shown that this generates mass terms for Higgs and spinor fields.