Bosonic Higher Spin Gravity in any Dimension with Dynamical Two-Form

Abstract: We first propose an alternative to Vasiliev's bosonic higher spin gravities in any dimension by factoring out a modified sp(2) gauge algebra. We evidence perturbative equivalence of the two models, which have the same spectrum of Fronsdal fields at the linearized level. We then embed the new model into a flat Quillen superconnection containing two extra master fields in form degrees one and two; more generally, the superconnection contains additional degrees of freedom associated to various deformations of the underlying non-commutative geometry. Finally, we propose that by introducing first-quantized sp(2) ghosts and duality extending the field content, the Quillen flatness condition can be unified with the sp(2) gauge conditions into a single flatness condition that is variational with a Frobenius-Chern-Simons action functional.