A theory of interacting fields of arbitrary spin. Generalizes Yang-Mills as a theory of spin-one, gravity as a theory of spin-two to fields of any spin.
Questions tagged [higher-spin]
55 questions
193
votes
2 answers
Why do we not have spin greater than 2?
It is commonly asserted that no consistent, interacting quantum field theory can be constructed with fields that have spin greater than 2 (possibly with some allusion to renormalization). I've also seen (see Bailin and Love, Supersymmetry) that we…
James
- 2,941
24
votes
1 answer
Vasiliev Higher Spin Theory and Supersymmetry
Recently there is renewed interest in the ideas of Vasiliev, Fradkin and others on generalizing gravity theories on deSitter or Anti-deSitter spaces to include higher spin fields (utilizing known loopholes in the Weinberg-Witten theorem by including…
user566
9
votes
1 answer
Free higher spin fields and gravity
There are soft theorems that suggest that any massless boson with spin higher than 2 should be a free field theory and cannot have interactions. Does this mean that one cannot embed such fields into a theory with gravity, which naturally interacts…
Panopticon
- 830
9
votes
0 answers
Why the spin 3/2 particle equation would violate causality?
I've recently come around the study of the so called Rarita-Schwinger equation for elementary particles of spin $3/2$.
The point it the article is really short, and no book treats the topic in a very complete way. At a certain point, it says…
EXVII
- 3,783
9
votes
1 answer
How does higher spin theory evade Weinberg's and the Coleman-Mandula no-go theorem?
Recently I heard some seminar on higher spin gauge theory, and got some interest. I know there are some no-go theorems in quantum field theories:
Weinberg: Massless higher spin amplitudes are forbidden by the general form of the…
phy_math
- 3,782
7
votes
1 answer
Connection beween infinite gauge symmetries and UV finiteness
In e.g., http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:0712.3526 the author claims:
Since the massless higher-spin field theories involve infinite-dimensional gauge symmetries, one expects that such theories may be ultraviolet finite.
This statment is connected to…
ungerade
- 1,364
6
votes
2 answers
Equations of motion for higher spin quantum fields
In the canonical quantization of a massive Lagrangian, we obtain equations of motion via the Euler-Lagrange formalism. As I have read, these can become rather long but decouple into the Klein-Gordon (or Dirac) plus a set of lower-order equations.…
Cream
- 1,658
6
votes
0 answers
Actions for relativistic point-particles of higher spin
To describe the behavior of a relativistic point-particle, we have the standard action
$$S=\int d\tau \bigg[\frac{1}{e} \dot X^\mu\dot X_\mu +m^2 e\bigg], $$
where $e$ is the worldline einbein. Then, it has been shown arXiv:hep-th/9510021 and…
user105620
- 1,173
6
votes
0 answers
Spin 3 vs spin 2 vs spin 1
I wanna to understand, why when one gonna to construct interacting theory of spin 3, one need also include infinite tower of spins 4, 5, 6 , ...
As I know, this statement correct even in classical theory.
Why there are not such obstructions for spin…
Nikita
- 5,757
- 3
- 18
- 51
6
votes
0 answers
An use of the Schwinger-Dyson equation
I was confused as to how the equation 10 on page 7 or equation 21 on page 8 of this paper http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.1866 was derived. Can someone explain from where does this come and what do the "weird" arrows in Figure 1 on page 7 mean (..it…
user6818
- 4,749
5
votes
1 answer
Some questions about the paper, "AdS description of induced higher spin gauge theory"
I am referring to this paper.
I guess that in this paper one is trying to relate the massless spin $s$ gauge fields in $AdS_4$ to conformal spin $s$ theory on $S^3$.
So am I right that the operator $K$ that has been defined here in $2.8$ is…
user6818
- 4,749
5
votes
1 answer
Conserved currents in higher-spin theories
After the proposal of Maldacena (AdS/CFT), there have been numerous attempts to find out gravity duals of various kinds of CFT. Klebanov and Polyakov gave one such correspondence here. The claim is this:
The singlet sector of the critical $O(N)$…
Debangshu
- 975
5
votes
1 answer
What is the proper method to obtain the Equations of motion from this higher spin action?
The results I am trying to derive can be found in this paper, appendix B. In class I have only ever dealt with actions that involve a single scalar field so dealing with actions of this form is quite unfamiliar to me. For some context we are in…
NormalsNotFar
- 800
5
votes
0 answers
Analogue of helicity in higher dimensions and concrete formula
Consider Poincare group $ISO(1,d-1)$ in some dimension $d>4$.
There are two Casimirs. Let's look at massless one-particle states: the little group is $ISO(d-2)$, and if we restrict to finite dimensional representations, it is actually $SO(d-2)$.
I'm…
jj_p
- 1,254
5
votes
1 answer
Gauge invariance of Rarita-Schwinger action in curved spacetime
The Rarita-Schwinger action in curved $n$-dimensional spacetime is
$$
\int \sqrt{g} \overline{\psi}_a \gamma^{abc} D_b \psi_c
$$
Here $g = \det(g_{\mu \nu})$, and the indices $a, b \dots$ are 'internal' indices that transform under e.g. $\mathrm{SO}…
Steven
- 427