English

Symmetry of massive Rarita-Schwinger fields

High Energy Physics - Theory 2016-09-06 v3 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Nuclear Theory

Abstract

We derive the general lagrangian and propagator for a vector-spinor field in dd-dimensions and show that the physical observables are invariant under the so-called point transformation symmetry. Until now the symmetry has not been exploited in any non-trival way, presumably because it is not an invariance of the classical action nor is it a gauge symmetry. Nevertheless, we develop a technique for exploring the consequences of the symmetry leading to a conserved vector current and charge. The current and charge are identically zero in the free field case and only contribute in a background such as a electromagnetic or gravitational field. The current can couple spin-3/2 fields to vector and scalar fields and may have important consequences in intermediate energy hadron physics as well as linearized supergravity. The consistency problem which plagues higher spin field theories is then discussed and and some ideas regarding the possiblity of solutions are presented.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0404131,
  title  = {Symmetry of massive Rarita-Schwinger fields},
  author = {Terry Pilling},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0404131},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

26 pages, 1 figure; revised using referee comments, Journal ref. added