Abstract:
Three-dimensional gravity is often employed as a toy model for applications in the context of the Holographic Principle.
The purely topological nature of this theory, however, may render it too simple to reveal insights into the working mechanisms of Holography and, thus, one may introduce extra degrees of freedom, for example via the coupling to a scalar or higher-spin field.
In this talk I will present a simple way to describe the propagation of massive scalar and higher-spin fields on a fixed asymptotically flat spacetime in 3D, thereby providing a mechanism that effectively unfolds the equations of Fierz and Pauli. I will also discuss a suitable higher-spin generalisation of flat-space boundary conditions.