Supertwistors and massive particles
Abstract
In the (super)twistor formulation of massless (super)particle mechanics, the mass-shell constraint is replaced by a "spin-shell" constraint from which the spin content can be read off. We extend this formalism to massive (super)particles (with N-extended spacetime supersymmetry) in three and four space-time dimensions, explaining how the spin-shell constraints are related to spin, and we use it to prove equivalence of the massive N=1 and BPS-saturated N=2 superparticle actions. We also find the supertwistor form of the action for "spinning particles" with N-extended worldline supersymmetry, massless in four dimensions and massive in three dimensions, and we show how this simplifies special features of the N=2 case.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1312.2768,
title = {Supertwistors and massive particles},
author = {Luca Mezincescu and Alasdair J. Routh and Paul K. Townsend},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1312.2768},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
41 pages. v2 has many additional references, and more details of "hidden" supersymmetries of massive superparticle actions. New format in v3, which corrects typos and includes alternative massive 4D superparticle action with only first-class constraints