English

Lanczos's equation as a way out of the spin 3/2 crisis?

Mathematical Physics 2007-05-23 v3 math.MP

Abstract

It is shown (1) that Lanczos's quaternionic formulation of Dirac's equation does not lead to a solution of the problems that plague the standard spin 3/2 theory based on the Rarita-Schwinger equation, but (2) that the four-component solutions to the quaternionic generalization of Dirac's equation proposed by Lanczos in 1929 may provide a consistent theory for spin 3/2 particles, although at the cost of giving up the postulate that there should be a one-to-one correspondence between arbitrary-high-spin unitary representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group and elementary particles.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math-ph/0210055,
  title  = {Lanczos's equation as a way out of the spin 3/2 crisis?},
  author = {Andre Gsponer and Jean-Pierre Hurni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math-ph/0210055},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

To appear in the special issue of "Hadronic Journal" on higher-spins and strong interactions, 24 pages, 2 tables, 1 appendix