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Helicity is a topological invariant of massless particles: C=-2h

Mathematical Physics 2025-05-05 v1 math.MP Quantum Physics

Abstract

There is an elementary but indispensable relationship between the topology and geometry of massive particles. The geometric spin ss is related to the topological dimension of the internal space VV by dimV=2s+1\dim V = 2s + 1. This breaks down for massless particles, which are characterized by their helicity hh, but all have 1D internal spaces. We show that a subtler relation exists between the topological and geometry of massless particles. Wave functions of massless particles are sections of nontrivial line bundles over the lightcone whose topology are completely characterized by their first Chern number CC. We prove that in general C=2hC = -2h. In doing so, we also exhibit a method of generating all massless bundle representations via an abelian group structure of massless particles.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.03494,
  title  = {Helicity is a topological invariant of massless particles: C=-2h},
  author = {Eric Palmerduca and Hong Qin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.03494},
  year   = {2025}
}

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13 pages