Constraints on Gravitation from Causality and Quantum Consistency
  We examine the role of consistency with causality and quantum mechanics in
determining the properties of gravitation. We begin by examining two different
classes of interacting theories of massless spin 2 particles -- gravitons. One
involves coupling the graviton with the lowest number of derivatives to matter,
the other involves coupling the graviton with higher derivatives to matter,
making use of the linearized Riemann tensor. The first class requires an
infinite tower of terms for consistency, which is known to lead uniquely to
general relativity. The second class only requires a finite number of terms for
consistency, which appears as another class of theories of massless spin 2. We
recap the causal consistency of general relativity and show how this fails in
the second class for the special case of coupling to photons, exploiting
related calculations in the literature. In a companion paper [1] this result is
generalized to a much broader set of theories. Then, as a causal modification
of general relativity, we add light scalar particles and recap the generic
violation of universal free-fall they introduce and its quantum resolution.
This leads to a discussion of a special type of scalar-tensor theory; the
$F(\mathcal{R})$ models. We show that, unlike general relativity, these models
do not possess the requisite counterterms to be consistent quantum effective
field theories. Together this helps to remove some of the central assumptions
made in deriving general relativity.
