Free geometric equations for higher spins

By D. Francia, A. Sagnotti. 2002

237 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We show how allowing non-local terms in the field equations of symmetric tensors uncovers a neat geometry that naturally generalizes the Maxwell and Einstein cases. The end results can be related to multiple traces of the generalized Riemann curvatures R α 1 ⋯α s ;β 1 ⋯β s introduced by de Wit and Freedman, divided by suitable powers of the D'Alembertian operator □. The conventional local equations can be recovered by a partial gauge fixing involving the trace of the gauge parameters Λα1⋯αs−1, absent in the Fronsdal formulation. The same geometry underlies the fermionic equations, that, for all spins s+1/2, can be linked via the operator ∂ □ to those of the spin-s bosons.

Subfields: Applied Mathematics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f501ff84653f64728904bec101493ba75f0d0b74

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In Applied Mathematics

1. Nicolas Boulanger
2. Nazim Bouatta
3. P. Sundell
4. G. Compère
5. C. Iazeolla
6. E. Joung
7. M. Taronna
8. X. Bekaert

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. P. Sundell
2. G. Compère
3. Nazim Bouatta
4. Nicolas Boulanger
5. E. Joung
6. X. Bekaert
7. M. Taronna
8. C. Iazeolla

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

1. M. Taronna
2. E. Joung
3. X. Bekaert
4. Nicolas Boulanger
5. P. Sundell
6. C. Iazeolla
7. G. Compère
8. Nazim Bouatta

Citations in the corpus

• Unfolding mixed-symmetry fields in AdS and the BMV conjecture: I. General formalism (2008, methodology): “, B, B = B, h J = h J for J 6= I, I +1 , and h I = h I −1 , (13)Totally symmetric sl(D)-tensor gauge fields were first considered in [44] though the dynamical field equation was not of the form (4.”
• Cubic interactions of massless higher spins in (A)dS: Metric-like approach (2011, background): “See [34–37] for other recent developments in the frame-like approach to the cubic-interaction problem.”
• An Introduction to free higher-spin fields (2004, methodology): “In this section we show how one can obtain very simple local non-Lagrangian descriptions that exhibit the unconstrained gauge symmetry present in the non-local equations and reduce to the Fronsdal form after a partial gauge fixing [3, 4, 5].”
• Effective action in a higher-spin background (2010, background): “odes can be misleading. Moreover, imposing from the beginning trace constraints on the higher-spin fields would break the non-Abelian symmetry group of unitary operators. The unconstrained formulation [41] and the triplets [42] both rely on unconstrained higher-spin tensors but the local actions invo”