English

Physical States in Canonically Quantized Supergravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-10-08 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We discuss the canonical quantization of N=1N=1 supergravity in the functional Schrodinger representation. Although the form of the supersymmetry constraints suggests that there are solutions of definite order nn in the fermion fields, we show that there are no such states for any finite nn. For n=0n=0, a simple scaling argument definitively excludes the purely bosonic states discussed by D'Eath. For n>0n>0, the argument is based on a mode expansion of the gravitino field on the quantization 3-surface. It is thus suggested that physical states in supergravity have infinite Grassmann number. This is confirmed for the free spin-3/2 field, for which we find that states satisfying the gauge constraints contain an infinite product of fermion mode operators.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9401155,
  title  = {Physical States in Canonically Quantized Supergravity},
  author = {Sean M. Carroll and Daniel Z. Freedman and Miguel E. Ortiz and Don N. Page},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9401155},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

36 pages (uses jnl.tex), CTP #2279