English

Singletons and their maximal symmetry algebras

Mathematical Physics 2023-06-13 v3 High Energy Physics - Theory math.MP

Abstract

Singletons are those unitary irreducible modules of the Poincare or (anti) de Sitter group that can be lifted to unitary modules of the conformal group. Higher-spin algebras are the corresponding realizations of the universal enveloping algebra of the conformal algebra on these modules. These objects appear in a wide variety of areas of theoretical physics: AdS/CFT correspondence, electric-magnetic duality, higher-spin multiplets, infinite-component Majorana equations, higher-derivative symmetries, etc. Singletons and higher-spin algebras are reviewed through a list of their many equivalent definitions in order to approach them from various perspectives. The focus of this introduction is on the symmetries of a singleton: its maximal algebra and the manifest realization thereof.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1111.4554,
  title  = {Singletons and their maximal symmetry algebras},
  author = {Xavier Bekaert},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1111.4554},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

34 pages, published (splitted into two distinct pieces) in the proceedings of the "7th spring school and workshop on quantum field theory & Hamiltonian systems" and of the "6th mathematical physics meeting: summer school and conference on modern mathematical physics", v2: references (and related comments) added, v3: typos corrected