English

Spinning particles and higher spin field equations

High Energy Physics - Theory 2015-07-15 v3

Abstract

Relativistic particles with higher spin can be described in first quantization using actions with local supersymmetry on the worldline. First, we present a brief review of these actions and their use in first quantization. In a Dirac quantization scheme the field equations emerge as Dirac constraints on the Hilbert space, and we outline how they lead to the description of higher spin fields in terms of the more standard Fronsdal-Labastida equations. Then, we describe how these actions can be extended so that the propagating particle is allowed to take different values of the spin, i.e. carry a reducible representation of the Poincar\'e group. This way one may identify a four dimensional model that carries the same degrees of freedom of the minimal Vasiliev's interacting higher spin field theory. Extensions to massive particles and to propagation on (A)dS spaces are also briefly commented upon.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1504.02683,
  title  = {Spinning particles and higher spin field equations},
  author = {Fiorenzo Bastianelli and Roberto Bonezzi and Olindo Corradini and Emanuele Latini},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.02683},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

10 pages, updated references. To appear in Proceedings of Victor Villanueva Memorial Workshop

R2 v1 2026-06-22T09:14:10.443Z