Mass generation for Abelian spin-1 particles via a symmetric tensor

In the topologically massive BF model (TMBF) the photon becomes massive via coupling to an antisymmetric tensor, without breaking the U(1) gauge symmetry. There is no need of a Higgs field. The TMBF model is dual to a first-order (in derivatives) formulation of the Maxwell-Proca theory where the antisymmetric field plays the role of an auxiliary field. Since the Maxwell-Proca theory also admits a first-order version which makes use of an auxiliary symmetric tensor, we investigate here a possible generalization of the TMBF model where the photon acquires mass via coupling to a symmetric tensor. We show that it is indeed possible to build up dual models to the Maxwell-Proca theory where the U(1) gauge symmetry is manifest without Higgs field, but after a local field redefinition the vector field eats up the trace of the symmetric tensor and becomes massive. So the explicit U(1) symmetry can be removed unlike the TMBF model.