The unique ghost-free mass and nonlinear potential terms for general relativity are presented in a diffeomorphism and local Lorentz invariant vierbein formalism. This construction requires an additional two-index Stückelberg field, beyond the four scalar fields used in the metric formulation, and unveils a new local SL(4) symmetry group of the mass and potential terms, not shared by the Einstein-Hilbert term. The new field is auxiliary but transforms as a vector under two different Lorentz groups, one of them the group of local Lorentz transformations, the other an additional global group. This formulation enables a geometric interpretation of the mass and potential terms for gravity in terms of certain volume forms. Furthermore, we find that the decoupling limit is much simpler to extract in this approach; in particular, we are able to derive expressions for the interactions of the vector modes. We also note that it is possible to extend the theory by promoting the two-index auxiliary field into a Nambu-Goldstone boson nonlinearly realizing a certain spacetime symmetry, and show how it is “eaten up” by the antisymmetric part of the vierbein.

• Received 26 August 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.88.084003