What's higher spin gauge theory all about?

[petergreat]

Recently I hear there's lots of research on higher spin gauge theories. I know nothing about it, so I'll ask some naive questions. How is Weinberg-Witten no-go theorem which forbids spins greater than 1 bypassed in these theories? Is the topic related to string theory? Thanks for answer.

 

[atyy]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.0435
How higher-spin gravity surpasses the spin two barrier: no-go theorems versus yes-go examples
Xavier Bekaert, Nicolas Boulanger, Per Sundell

http://pirsa.org/C11003
Higher Spin Theories
Mini-Course by Simone Giombi

In the http://pirsa.org/11030093/" of Giombi's lectures Smolin asks a good (to help laymen like me) simple question at 22:30: What is the bulk gravity? G: Higher derivative corrections. S:Are they known exactly? G: No. S: Everything has higher derivative corrections, but the leading term is Einstein? G: At quadratic level, it is equivalent to linear Einstein. At interacting level ...