English

Spin-2 fields and helicity

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2012-09-05 v2

Abstract

By considering the irreducible representations of the Lorentz group, an analysis of the different spin-2 waves is presented. In particular, the question of the helicity is discussed. It is concluded that, although from the point of view of representation theory there are no compelling reasons to choose between spin-2 waves with helicity = + - 1 or helicity = + - 2, consistency arguments of the ensuing field theories favor waves with helicity = + - 1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1110.3288,
  title  = {Spin-2 fields and helicity},
  author = {H. I. Arcos and C. S. O. Mayor and G. Otalora and J. G. Pereira},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.3288},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

10 pages. V2: presentation changes and discussion added

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:20:29.652Z