Work

All actions for free massive higher-spin fields

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Massive higher-spin states/fields appear in the effective description of various systems from hadrons and nuclei to black holes, whenever the point-particle approximation is justified, as well as in the bottom-up approaches to the quantum gravity problem. In four dimensions the actions for massive higher-spin fields utilize either the Singh-Hagen/Zinoviev set of auxiliary fields or a single chiral field, which is an s l ( 2 , C ) spin-tensor of type ( 2 s , 0 ) , generalizing the Chalmers-Siegel approach. We show that these two actions are on the opposite ends of a discrete family of actions where the physical field is a spin-tensor of type ( s + k , s − k ) . The ( 2 s − 1 , 1 ) - and ( 2 s − 2 , 2 ) -cases generalize the Proca and the Fierz-Pauli actions, respectively, to all spins. A similar family of second-order actions exists for fermionic higher-spin fields.

Source: Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.111.045015

Author: William Delplanque

Institution: University of Mons

Language: English

Topic: Black Holes and Theoretical Physics

Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid