English

Chiral fermions as classical massless spinning particles

High Energy Physics - Theory 2015-03-05 v4 Strongly Correlated Electrons High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

Semiclassical chiral fermion models with Berry term are studied in a symplectic framework. In the free case, the system can be obtained from Souriau's model for a relativistic massless spinning particle by "enslaving" the spin. The Berry term is identified with the classical spin two-form of the latter model. The Souriau model carries a natural Poincar\'e symmetry that we highlight, but spin enslavement breaks the boost symmetry. However the relation between the models allows us to derive a Poincare symmetry of unconventional form for chiral fermions. Then we couple our system to an external electromagnetic field. For gyromagnetic ratio g=0g=0 we get curious superluminal Hall-type motions; for g=2g=2 and in a pure constant magnetic field in particular, we find instead spiraling motions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1406.0718,
  title  = {Chiral fermions as classical massless spinning particles},
  author = {C. Duval and P. A. Horvathy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.0718},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Substantially revised and extended version. 31 pages, 5 figures. Details clarified and references added. To be published in PRD

R2 v1 2026-06-22T04:29:28.285Z