A generalized twistor transform for spinning particles in 3+1 dimensions is constructed that beautifully unifies many types of spinning systems by mapping them to the same twistor, thus predicting an infinite set of duality relations among spinning systems with different Hamiltonians. Usual 1T-physics is not equipped to explain the duality relationships and unification between these systems. We use 2T-physics in 4+2 dimensions to uncover new properties of twistors, and expect that our approach will prove to be useful for practical applications as well as for a deeper understanding of fundamental physics. Unexpected structures for a new description of spinning particles emerge. A unifying symmetry SU(2,3) that includes conformal symmetry SU(2,2)=SO(4,2) in the massless case, turns out to be a fundamental property underlying the dualities of a large set of spinning systems, including those that occur in high spin theories. This may lead to new forms of string theory backgrounds as well as to new methods for studying various corners of M theory. In this paper we present the main concepts, and in a companion paper we give other details.
We construct massless infinite spin irreducible representations of the six-dimensional Poincaré group in the space of fields depending on twistor variables. It is shown that the massless infinite spin representation is realized on the two-twistor fields. We present a full set of equations of motion for two-twistor fields represented by the totally symmetric $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ rank $2s$ two-twistor spin-tensor and show that they carry massless infinite spin representations. A field twistor transform is constructed and infinite spin fields are found in the space-time formulation with an additional…
The Penrose transform between twistors and the phase space of massless particles is generalized from the massless case to an assortment of other particle dynamical systems, including special examples of massless or massive particles, relativistic or non-relativistic, interacting or non-interacting, in flat space or curved spaces. Our unified construction involves always the \it{same} twistor Z^A with only four complex degrees of freedom and subject to the \it{same} helicity constraint. Only the twistor to phase space transform differs from one case to another. Hence a unification of diverse pa…
Twistor phase spaces are used to provide a general description of the dynamics of a finite number of directly interacting massless spinning particles forming a closed relativistic massive and spinning system with an internal structure. A Poincare invariant canonical quantization of the so obtained twistor phase space dynamics is performed.
We propose a new world-line Lagrangian model of the D=4 massless relativistic particle with continuous spin and develop its twistorial formulation. The description uses two Penrose twistors subjected to four first class constraints. After the first quantization of the world-line twistorial model, the wave function is defined by an unconstrained function on the two-dimensional complex affine plane. We find the twistor transform that determines the space-time field of the continuous spin particle through the corresponding twistor one, which plays the role of a prepotential. It is shown that this…
We propose various ways of adding mass terms to three-dimensional twistor string theory. We begin with a review of mini-twistor space--the reduction of D=4 twistor space to D=3. We adapt the two proposals for twistor string theory, Witten's and Berkovits's, to D=3 super Yang-Mills theory. In Berkovits's model, we identify the enhanced R-symmetry. We then construct B-model topological string theories that, we propose, correspond to D=3 Yang-Mills theory with massive spinors and massive and massless scalars in the adjoint representation of the gauge group. We also analyze the counterparts of the…
Recently N. Berkovits, motivated by the supertwistor description of ${\cal N}=4 D=4$ super Yang-Mills, considered the generalization of the ${\cal N}=1 D=4$ $θ$-twistor construction to D=10 and applied it for a compact covariant description of ${\cal N}=1 D=10$ super Yang-Mills. This supports the relevance of the $θ$-twistor as a supersymmetric twistor alternative to the well-known supertwistor. The minimal breaking of superconformal symmetry is an inherent property of the $θ$-twistor received from its fermionic components, described by a Grassmannian vector instead of a Grassmannian scalar in…
We construct the manifestly Lorentz-invariant twistorial formulation of N=1 D=4 superparticle with tensorial central charges which describes massive and massless cases in a uniform manner. The tensorial central charges are realized in terms of even spinor variables and central charge coordinates. The full analysis of the number of conserved supersymmetries has been carried out. In the massive case the superparticle preserves 1/4 or 1/2 of target-space supersymmetries whereas the massless superparticle preserves two or three supersymmetries.
We develop a new twistorial field formulation of a massless infinite spin particle. Unlike our previous approach arXiv:1805.09706, the quantization of such a world-line infinite spin particle model is carried without any gauge fixing. As a result, we construct a twistorial infinite spin field and derive its helicity decomposition. Using the field twistor transform, we construct the space-time infinite (continuous) spin field, which depends on the coordinate four-vector and additional commuting Weyl spinor. The equations of motion for infinite spin fields in the cases of integer and half-intege…
We study some features of bosonic particle path-integral quantization in a twistor-like approach by use of the BRST-BFV quantization prescription. In the course of the Hamiltonian analysis we observe links between various formulations of the twistor-like particle by performing a conversion of the Hamiltonian constraints of one formulation to another. A particular feature of the conversion procedure applied to turn the second-class constraints into the first-class constraints is that the simplest Lorentz-covariant way to do this is to convert a full mixed set of the initial first- and second-cl…
We study the bosonization of massless fermions in three-dimensional space-time. Using the path-integral approach as well as the operator formalism, we investigate new duality relations between fermionic and bosonic theories. In particular, we show that a theory of massless fermions is dual to three different, but equivalent bosonic theories which are quadratic in the bosonic fields: a non-local Maxwell- Chern-Simons-type theory, a non-local self-dual-type vector theory, and a local free massless bosonic theory. The equivalence is proven at the level of current correlation functions and current…
A new twistorial field formulation of a massless infinite spin particle is derived. We find a twistorial infinite spin field and derive its helicity decomposition. The twistorial equations of motion for infinite spin fields in the cases of integer and half-integer helicities are derived. We show that the infinite integer-spin field and infinite half-integer-spin field form the $\mathcal{N}{=}\,1$ infinite spin supermultiplet. The corresponding supersymmetry transformations are presented. We prove that the supersymmetry algebra is closed on-shell.
We construct spectra of supersymmetric higher spin theories in D=4, 5 and 7 from twistors describing massless (super-)particles on AdS spaces. A massless twistor transform is derived in a geometric way from classical kinematics. Relaxing the spin-shell constraints on twistor space gives an infinite tower of massless states of a ``higher spin particle'', generalising previous work of Bandos et al. This can generically be done in a number of ways, each defining the states of a distinct higher spin theory, and the method provides a systematic way of finding these. We reproduce known results in D=…
Hughston has shown that projective pure spinors can be used to construct massless solutions in higher dimensions, generalizing the four-dimensional twistor transform of Penrose. In any even (Euclidean) dimension d=2n, projective pure spinors parameterize the coset space SO(2n)/U(n), which is the space of all complex structures on R^{2n}. For d=4 and d=6, these spaces are CP^1 and CP^3, and the appropriate twistor transforms can easily be constructed. In this paper, we show how to construct the twistor transform for d>6 when the pure spinor satisfies nonlinear constraints, and present explicit …
Massless particle dynamics in $D=10$ Minkowski space is given an $E_7$-covariant formulation, including both space-time and twistor variables. $E_7$ contains the conformal algebra as a subalgebra. Analogous constructions apply to $D=3,4$ and 6.
Twistors in four dimensions d=4 have provided a convenient description of massless particles with any spin, and this led to remarkable computational techniques in Yang-Mills field theory. Recently it was shown that the same d=4 twistor provides also a unified description of an assortment of other particle dynamical systems, including special examples of massless or massive particles, relativistic or non-relativistic, interacting or non-interacting, in flat space or curved spaces. In this paper, using 2T-physics as the primary theory, we derive the general twistor transform in d-dimensions that…
For the gauge massless higher spin 4D, N = 1 off-shell supermultiplets previously developed, we provide evidence of a twistor-like oscillator realization that is intrinsically related to the superfield structure of the dynamical variables and gauge transformations. Gauge invariant field strengths and linearized Bianchi identities for these multiplets are worked out. It is further argued, inspired by earlier non- supersymmetric constructions due to Klishevich and Zinoviev, that a massive superspin-$s$ multiplet can be described as a gauge-invariant dynamical system involving massless multiplets…
The 4-dimensional model of a massless particle with rigidity whose Lagrangian is proportional to its world-line curvature is reformulated in terms of spinor and twistor variables. We begin with a first-order Lagrangian that is equivalent to the original Lagrangian proportional to the extrinsic curvature of a particle world-line. The first-order Lagrangian is written in terms of spacetime and spinor variables, leading to a spinor representation of the Lagrangian. Then its corresponding action is expressed in terms of twistor variables, leading to the gauged Shirafuji action.
I present a novel method of deriving a basis of contact terms in massless effective field theories (EFTs). It relies on the parametrization of $N$-body kinematics via the so-called momentum twistors. A basis is constructed directly at the amplitude level, without using fields or Lagrangians. The method consists in recasting any local contact term as a sum of rational functions built from Lorentz-invariant contractions of momentum twistors. The end result is equivalent to constructing a basis of higher-dimensional operators in an EFT Lagrangian, however it is considerably simpler, especially fo…
Consistency conditions for the local existence of massless spin 3/2 fields has been explored that the field equations for massless helicity 3/2 are consistent iff the space-time is Ricci-flat and that in Minkowski space-time the space of conserved charges for the fields is its twistor space itself. After considering the twistorial methods to study such massless helicity 3/2 fields, we derive in flat space-time that the charges of spin-3/2 fields defined topologically by the first Chern number of their spin-lowered self-dual Maxwell fields, are given by their twistor space, and in curved space-…
Ambitwistor-strings are chiral strings whose targets are spaces of complex massless particles, and whose correlation functions directly lead to simple, compact formulae for scattering amplitudes and loop integrands for massless gauge and gravity theories. This article extends this framework to worldsheet models for massive particles in 4d, obtained via a symmetry reduction of a higher dimensional massless model. The target space of the resulting models turns out to be the phase space of 4d massive particles in a twistorial representation, and so the worldsheet theory agrees with the two-twisto…
We derive the fivebrane instanton corrections to the hypermultiplet moduli space $M_H$ of Calabi-Yau string vacua using S-duality symmetry of the type IIB formulation. The result is given in terms of a set of holomorphic functions on the twistor space of $M_H$. It contains not only all orders of the instanton expansion, but also takes into account the presence of D1-D(-1)-brane instantons. Furthermore, we provide a thorough study of the group of discrete isometries of $M_H$ and show that its closure requires a modification of certain symmetry transformations. After this modification, the fiveb…
It is shown that similarly to massless superparticle, classical global symmetry of the Berkovits twistor string action is infinite-dimensional. We identify its superalgebra, whose finite-dimensional subalgebra contains $psl(4|4,\mathbb R)$ superalgebra. In quantum theory this infinite-dimensional symmetry breaks down to $SL(4|4,\mathbb R)$ one.
A twistorial formulation of a particle of arbitrary spin has been constructed. Equations of the twistor formulation are obtained for massive and massless spinning particles. The twistor space of the massive particle is formed by two twistors and two complex scalars. In the massive case, integral transformations relating twistor fields with usual space-time fields have been constructed.
Positive energy unitary irreducible representations of $SU(2,2)$ can be constructed with the aid of bosonic oscillators in (anti)fundamental representation of $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R$ that are closely related to Penrose twistors. Starting with the correspondence between the doubleton representations, homogeneous functions on projective twistor space and on-shell $SL(2,\mathbb C)$ generalized Weyl curvature spinors and their low-spin counterparts, we study in the similar way the correspondence between the massless representations, homogeneous functions on ambitwistor space and, via the Penrose t…
We present a novel twistor formulation of the ten-dimensional massless superparticle. This formulation is based on the introduction of pure spinor variables through a field redefinition of another model for the superparticle, and in the new description we find that the super-Pauli-Lubanski three-form naturally arises as a constraint. Quantization is studied in detail for both models and they are shown to correctly describe the $D = 10$ super-Yang-Mills states.
I review the relationship between AdS/CFT (anti-de Sitter / conformal field theory) dualities and the general theory of positive energy unitary representations of non-compact space-time groups and supergroups. I show, in particular, how one can go from the manifestly unitary compact basis of the lowest weight (positive energy) representations of the conformal group (Wigner picture) to the manifestly covariant coherent state basis (Dirac picture). The coherent states labelled by the space-time coordinates correspond to covariant fields with a definite conformal dimension. These results extend t…
The two-twistor formulation of particle mechanics in D-dimensional anti-de Sitter space for D=4,5,7, which linearises invariance under the AdS isometry group Sp(4;K) for K=R,C,H, is generalized to the massless N-extended "spinning particle". The twistor variables are gauge invariant with respect to the initial N local worldline supersymmetries; this simplifies aspects of the quantum theory such as implications of global gauge anomalies. We also give details of the two-supertwistor form of the superparticle, in particular the massive superparticle on AdS_5.
In these lectures I will discuss the following topics: (1) Twistors in 4 flat dimensions: Massless particles; constrained phase space (x,p) versus twistors; Physical states in twistor space. (2) Introduction to 2T-physics and derivation of 1T-physics holographs and twistors: Emergent spacetimes & dynamics, holography, duality; Sp(2,R) gauge symmetry, constraints, solutions and (d,2); Global symmetry, quantization and the SO(d,2) singleton. (3) Twistors for particle dynamics in d dimensions, particles with mass, relativistic, non-relativistic, in curved spaces, with interactions. (4)Supersymmet…
Lagrangian and Hamiltonian dynamics of de Azcarraga-Lukierski N=2 massive superparticle is considered in the framework of twistor-like Lorentz-harmonic approach. The emphasis is on the study of the interaction with external Abelian gauge superfield. The requirement of preservation of all gauge symmetries of the free model including kappa-symmetry yields correct expressions for the superfield strength constraints and determines the form of nonminimal interaction. We also show that for de Azcarraga-Lukierski N=2 massive superparticle the pullback of field strength 2-superform to the superworld l…
We show that a two twistor phase space {à} priori describing two non localized massless and spinning particles may be decomposed into a product of three independent phase spaces: the (forward) cotangent bundle of the Minkowski space, the cotangent bundle to a circle (electric charge phase space) and the cotangent bundle to the real projective spinor space. Reduction of this 16 dimensional phase space with respect to two mutually commuting conformal scalars (the electric charge and the difference between the two helicities) produces a 12 dimensional extended relativistic phase space\cite{zak} d…
We generalize the construction of four dimensional non-tachyonic orientifolds of type 0B string theory to non-supersymmetric backgrounds. We construct a four dimensional model containing self-dual D3 and D9-branes and leading to a chiral anomaly-free massless spectrum. Moreover, we discuss a further tachyon-free six dimensional model with only D5 branes. Eventually, we speculate about strong coupling dual models of the ten-dimensional orientifolds of type 0B.
Massless conformal scalar field in d=4 corresponds to the minimal unitary representation (minrep) of the conformal group SU(2,2) which admits a one-parameter family of deformations that describe massless fields of arbitrary helicity. The minrep and its deformations were obtained by quantization of the nonlinear realization of SU(2,2) as a quasiconformal group in arXiv:0908.3624. We show that the generators of SU(2,2) for these unitary irreducible representations can be written as bilinears of deformed twistorial oscillators which transform nonlinearly under the Lorentz group and apply them to …
It is proved that the $n$-twistor expression of a particle's four-momentum vector reduces, by a unitary transformation, to the two-twistor expression for a massive particle or the one-twistor expression for a massless particle. Therefore the {\em genuine} $n$-twistor description of a massive particle in four-dimensional Minkowski space fails for the case $n\ge3$.
Spin raising and lowering operators for massless field equations constructed from twistor spinors are considered. Solutions of the spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ massless Rarita-Schwinger equation from source-free Maxwell fields and twistor spinors are constructed. It is shown that this construction requires Ricci-flat backgrounds due to the gauge invariance of the massless Rarita-Schwinger equation. Constraints to construct spin raising and lowering operators for Rarita-Schwinger fields are found. Symmetry operators for Rarita-Schwinger fields via twistor spinors are obtained.
We are discussing the $S$ \& $T$ duality for special class of heterotic string configurations. This class of solutions includes various types of black hole solutions and Taub-NUT geometries. It allows a self-dual point for both dualities which corresponds to massless configurations. As string state this point corresponds to $N_R=1/2$ and $N_L=0$. The string/string duality is shortly discussed.
This article gives a study of the higher-dimensional Penrose transform between conformally invariant massless fields on space-time and cohomology classes on twistor space, where twistor space is defined to be the space of projective pure spinors of the conformal group. We focus on the 6-dimensional case in which twistor space is the six-quadric Q in CP^7 with a view to applications to the self-dual (0,2)-theory. We show how spinor-helicity momentum eigenstates have canonically defined distributional representatives on twistor space (a story that we extend to arbitrary dimension). These give an…
The conformal symmetry SO(d,2) of the massless particle in d dimensions, or superconformal symmetry OSp(N|4), SU(2,2|N), OSp(8|N) of the superparticle in d=3,4,6 dimensions respectively, had been previously understood as the global Lorentz symmetry and supersymmetries of 2T physics in d+2 dimensions. By utilising the gauge symmetries of 2T physics, it is shown that the dynamics can be cast in terms of superspace coordinates, momenta and theta variables or in terms of supertwistor variables a la Penrose and Ferber. In 2T physics these can be gauge transformed to each other. In the supertwistor …
We extend the Shirafuji model for massless particles with primary spacetime coordinates and composite four-momenta to a model for massive particles with spin and electric charge. The primary variables in the model are the spacetime four-vector, four scalars describing spin and charge degrees of freedom as well as a pair of Weyl spinors. The geometric description proposed in this paper provides an intermediate step between the free purely twistorial model in two-twistor space in which both spacetime and four-momenta vectors are composite, and the standard particle model, where both spacetime an…
From the modern viewpoint and by the geometric method, this paper provides a concise foundation for the quantum theory of massless spin-3/2 field in Minkowski spacetime, which includes both the one-particle's quantum mechanics and the many-particle's quantum field theory. The explicit result presented here is useful for the investigation of spin-3/2 field in various circumstances such as supergravity, twistor programme, Casimir effect, and quantum inequality.
A new type of supersymmetric twistors is proposed and they are called $θ$-twistors versus the supertwistors. The $θ$-twistor is a triple of spinors including the spinor superspace coordinate $θ$ instead of the Grassmannian scalar in the supertwistor triple. The superspace of the $θ$-twistors is closed under the superconformal group transformations except the (super)conformal boosts. Using the $θ$-twistors in physics preserves the auxiliary field F in the chiral (0,1/2) supermultiplet contrarily to the supertwistor description. Moreover, it yields an infinite chain of higher spin chiral supermu…
Operator algebra of (not necessarily free) higher-spin conformal conserved currents in generalized matrix spaces, that include 3d Minkowski space-time as a particular case, is shown to be determined by an associative algebra $M$ of functions on the twistor space. For free conserved currents, $M$ is the universal enveloping algebra of the higher-spin algebra. Proposed construction greatly simplifies computation and analysis of correlators of conserved currents. Generating function for $n$-point functions of 3d (super)currents of all spins, built from $N$ free constituent massless scalars and sp…
The conjectured duality relating all-loop leading singularities of n-particle N^(k-2)MHV scattering amplitudes in N=4 SYM to a simple contour integral over the Grassmannian G(k,n) makes all the symmetries of the theory manifest. Every residue is individually Yangian invariant, but does not have a local space-time interpretation--only a special sum over residues gives physical amplitudes. In this paper we show that the sum over residues giving tree amplitudes can be unified into a single algebraic variety, which we explicitly construct for all NMHV and N^2MHV amplitudes. Remarkably, this allows…
A short review of special relativistic dynamics describing a particle acted upon by an arbitrary conservative external force is presented. If the mass of the particle is zero and the force is central then the equations of motion turn out to be completely integrable. A well-known result. Hamiltonian flows on the twistor phase space T are constructed which, for conservative forces and value of the helicity equal to zero, reproduce equations of motion of the classical massless particle. For helicities different from zero the same hamiltonian flows produce equations of motion showing a curious "Zi…
A twistor model of a free massless spinning particle in 4-dimensional Minkowski space is studied in terms of spacetime and spinor variables. This model is specified by a simple action, referred to here as the gauged Shirafuji action, that consists of twistor variables and gauge fields on the 1-dimensional parameter space. We consider the canonical formalism of the model by following the Dirac formulation for constrained Hamiltonian systems. In the subsequent quantization procedure, we obtain a plane-wave solution with momentum spinors. From this solution and coefficient functions, we construct…
Solutions of massless spin-2 field equations are written in terms of massless spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ Rarita-Schwinger fields and twistor spinors. It is shown that the proposed massless spin-2 fields satisfy the tracelessness and divergencelessness conditions and are in the kernel of the Laplace-Beltrami operator. A spin lowering procedure for special cases and a symmetry operator for massless spin-2 fields are also obtained. Description of massless spin-2 fields in terms of lower spin fields are found.
In a recent paper, we show that an S-matrix functional for graviton amplitudes can be described by an N=8 supersymmetric gravitational holonomy operator in twistor space. In this paper, we obtain an alternative expression for the gravitational holonomy operator such that it can be interpreted as a square of an N=4 holonomy operator for frame fields, by taking a sum of certain shuffles over ordered indices. The new expression leads to amplitudes of not only spin-2 gravitons but also spin-0 massless particles. We discuss that the squared model is favored as a theory of quantum gravity.
Massless conformal scalar field in six dimensions corresponds to the minimal unitary representation (minrep) of the conformal group SO(6,2). This minrep admits a family of deformations labelled by the spin t of an SU(2)_T group, which is the 6d analog of helicity in four dimensions. These deformations of the minrep of SO(6,2) describe massless conformal fields that are symmetric tensors in the spinorial representation of the 6d Lorentz group. The minrep and its deformations were obtained by quantization of the nonlinear realization of SO(6,2) as a quasiconformal group in arXiv:1005.3580. We gi…
We study $SU(N)$ Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in 3+1 dimensions with $N_f$ degenerate fundamental quarks with mass $m$ and a $θ$-parameter. For generic $m$ and $θ$ the theory has a single gapped vacuum. However, as $θ$ is varied through $θ=π$ for large $m$ there is a first order transition. For $N_f=1$ the first order transition line ends at a point with a massless $η'$ particle (for all $N$) and for $N_f>1$ the first order transition ends at $m=0$, where, depending on the value of $N_f$, the IR theory has free Nambu-Goldstone bosons, an interacting conformal field theory, or a free gauge theo…
We propose a "master" higher-spin (HS) particle system. The particle model relevant to the unfolded formulation of HS theory, as well as the HS particle model with a bosonic counterpart of supersymmetry, follow from the master model as its two different gauges. Quantization of the master system gives rise to a new form of the massless HS equations in an extended space involving, besides extra spinorial coordinates, also a complex scalar one. As solutions to these equations we recover the massless HS multiplet with fields of all integer and half-integer helicities, and obtain new multiplets wit…
In his twistor-particle programme of the 1970's, Roger Penrose introduced a representation of the massive particle phase space in terms of a pair of twistors subject to an internal symmetry group. Here we use this representation to introduce a chiral string whose target is a complexification of this space, extended so as to incorporate supersymmetry. We show that the gauge anomalies associated to the internal symmetry group vanish only for maximal supersymmetry, and that correlators in these string models describe amplitudes involving massive particles with manifest supersymmetry. The models a…
Witten's twistor string theory has led to new representations of S-matrix in massless QFT as a single object, including Cachazo-He-Yuan formulas in general and connected formulas in four dimensions. As a first step towards more realistic processes of the standard model, we extend the construction to QCD tree amplitudes with massless quarks and those with a Higgs boson. For both cases, we find connected formulas in four dimensions for all multiplicities which are very similar to the one for Yang-Mills amplitudes. The formula for quark-gluon color-ordered amplitudes differs from the pure-gluon c…
We study low-energy dynamics of three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ $SU(N)$ "chiral" gauge theories with $F$ fundamental and $\bar{F}$ anti-fundamental matters without a Chern-Simons term. Compared to a naive semi-classical analysis of the Coulomb branch, its quantum structure is highly richer than expected due to so-called "dressed" Coulomb branch (monopole) operators. We propose dualities and confinement phases for the "chiral" $SU(N)$ theories. The theories with $N>F > \bar{F}$ exhibit spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The very many Coulomb branch operators generally remain exactly massless…
