Generalization of the 2-form interactions

Abstract: We systematically construct derivative self-interactions for massless and massive 2-forms. There exists a no-go theorem in the literature for constructing Galileon-like Lagrangians in four dimensions for the 2-form with gauge invariance, the Kalb-Rammond field. The presence of non-minimal couplings strongly relies on the contraction with divergenceless tensors. In four dimensions these are the Einstein tensor and the double dual Riemann tensor. Even though they are divergenceless on their own, their combination ceases to be. In the case of massless 2-forms we are not able to establish non-minimal couplings of the 2-form to the gravity sector with second order equations of motion due to the impossibility of building consistent combinations of divergenceless tensors. Using the systematical construction in terms of the Levi-Civita tensor, we aim at constructing Galileon-like derivative self-interactions for the massive 2-form. Apart from $L_2$ and $L_4$ we are not able to construct further Galileon-like Lagrangians. For the massive case, an important non-minimal coupling between the 2-form and the double dual Riemann tensor arises, which receives additional support from the decoupling limit. Promoting the interactions in $L_4$ requires the presence of appropriate non-minimal couplings and we give concrete examples for this.