A Gauge Field Theory of Continuous-Spin Particles
Abstract
We propose and quantize a local, covariant gauge-field action that unifies the description of all free helicity and continuous-spin degrees of freedom in a simple manner. This is the first field-theory action of any kind for continuous spin particles; it is consistent as a quantum theory and generalizes to any number of dimensions. The fields live on the null cone of an internal four-vector "spin-space"; in D dimensions a linearized gauge invariance reduces their physical content to a single function on a Euclidean (D-2)-plane, on which the little group E(D-2) acts naturally. A projective version of the action further reduces the physical content to S^{D-3}, enabling a new local description of particles with any spin structure, and in particular a tower of all integer-helicity particles for D=4. Gauge-invariant interactions with a background current are added in a straightforward manner.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1302.3225,
title = {A Gauge Field Theory of Continuous-Spin Particles},
author = {Philip Schuster and Natalia Toro},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1302.3225},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
35 pages, 1 figure version published in JHEP -- introductory discussion of tensor fields for continuous-spin removed, some typos removed and a few clarifying remarks added