Higher-Spin Gauge Theories and Bulk Locality

Abstract: We present a no-go result on consistent Noether interactions among higher-spin gauge fields on anti-de Sitter space-times. We show that there is a non-local obstruction at the classical level to consistent interacting field theory descriptions of massless higher-spin particles that are described in the free limit by the free Fronsdal action, under the assumption that such theories arise from the gauging of a global higher-spin symmetry. Our result suggests that the Fronsdal programme for introducing interactions among higher-spin gauge fields cannot be completed without introducing new guiding principles, which could lie beyond the framework of classical field theory.