Maxwell-like Lagrangians for higher spins
Abstract
We show how implementing invariance under divergence-free gauge transformations leads to a remarkably simple Lagrangian description of massless bosons of any spin. Our construction covers both flat and (A)dS backgrounds and extends to tensors of arbitrary mixed-symmetry type. Irreducible and traceless fields produce single-particle actions, while whenever trace constraints can be dispensed with the resulting Lagrangians display the same reducible, multi-particle spectra as those emerging from the tensionless limit of free open-string field theory. For all explored options the corresponding kinetic operators take essentially the same form as in the spin-one, Maxwell case.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1206.5877,
title = {Maxwell-like Lagrangians for higher spins},
author = {Andrea Campoleoni and Dario Francia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.5877},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
77 pages, revised version. Erroneous interpretation and proof of the gauge-fixing procedure for mixed-symmetry fields corrected. As a consequence, the mixed-symmetry, one-particle Lagrangians are to be complemented with conditions on the divergences of the fields; all other conclusions unchanged. Additional minor changes including references added. To appear in JHEP