Year: 2000
Type: article
Abstract: A field theory formulation of two-time physics in $d+2$ dimensions is obtained from the covariant quantization of the constraint system associated with the $\mathrm{OSp}(n|2)$ worldline gauge symmetries of two-time physics. Interactions among fields can then be included consistently with the underlying gauge symmetries. Through this process a relation between Dirac's work in 1936 on conformal symmetry in field theory and the more recent worldline formulation of two-time physics is established while providing a worldline gauge symmetry basis for the field equations in $d+2$ dimensions. It is shown that the field theory formalism goes well beyond Dirac's goal of linearizing conformal symmetry. In accord with recent results in the worldline approach of two-time physics, the $d+2$ field theory can be brought down to diverse d-dimensional field theories by solving the subset of field equations that correspond to the ``kinematic'' constraints. This process embeds the one ``time'' in d dimensions in different ways inside the $(d+2)$-dimensional spacetime. Thus, the two-time $d+2$ field theory appears as a more fundamental theory from which many one-time d-dimensional field theories are derived. It is suggested that the hidden symmetries and relations among computed quantities in certain d-dimensional interacting field theories can be taken as evidence for the presence of a higher unifying structure in a $(d+2)$-dimensional spacetime. These phenomena have similarities with ideas such as dualities, AdS-CFT correspondence, and holography.
Author: Itzhak Bars
Institution: University of Southern California
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2021444071