The unfolded formulation for arbitrary massless mixed-symmetry bosonic and fermionic fields in Minkowski space is constructed. The unfolded form is proved to be uniquely determined by the requirement that all gauge symmetries are manifest. The unfolded equations have the form of a covariant constancy condition. The gauge fields and gauge parameters are differential forms with values in certain irreducible Lorentz tensors. The unfolded equations for bosons determine completely those for fermions. The proposed unfolded formulation also contains dual formulations for massless mixed-symmetry fields.
Point-particle dynamics is reformulated as a field theory. This is achieved by using the unfolded dynamics approach that makes it possible to give dynamical interpretation to the concept of physical dimension which is 1 for a point particle in the $d$-dimensional space-time. The main idea for the description of a $k$-dimensional on-shell system in the $d$-dimensional space is to keep the evolution along $d-k$ dimensions off-shell or, alternatively, restrict it in a specific way respecting the compatibility conditions of the resulting unfolded system. The developed approach gives some hints how…
Interactions of massless fields of all spins in four dimensions with currents of any spin is shown to result from a solution of the linear problem that describes a gluing between rank-one (massless) system and rank-two (current) system in the unfolded dynamics approach. Since the rank-two system is dual to a free rank-one higher-dimensional system, that effectively describes conformal fields in six space-time dimensions, the constructed system can be interpreted as describing a mixture between linear conformal fields in four and six dimensions. Interpretation of the obtained results in spirit …
Unfolded equations of motion for symmetric massive bosonic fields of any spin in Minkowski and (A)dS spaces are presented. Manifestly gauge invariant action for a spin $s \ge 2$ massive field in any dimension is constructed in terms of gauge invariant curvatures.
Within unfolded dynamics approach, we represent actions and conserved charges as elements of cohomology of the $L_\infty$ algebra underlying the unfolded formulation of a given dynamical system. The unfolded off-shell constraints for symmetric fields of all spins in Minkowski space are shown to have the form of zero curvature and covariant constancy conditions for 1-forms and 0-forms taking values in an appropriate star product algebra. Unfolded formulation of Yang-Mills and Einstein equations is presented in a closed form.
We present an unfolded off-shell formulation for free massless higher-spin fields in 4d Minkowski space in terms of spinorial variables. This system arises from the on-shell one by the addition of external higher-spin currents, for which we find an unfolded description. Also we show that this off-shell system can be interpreted as Schwinger-Dyson equations and restore two-point functions of higher-spin fields this way.
It has recently been shown that generalized connections of the (A)dS space symmetry algebra provide an effective geometric and algebraic framework for all types of gauge fields in (A)dS, both for massless and partially-massless. The equations of motion are equipped with a nilpotent operator called $σ_-$ whose cohomology groups correspond to the dynamically relevant quantities like differential gauge parameters, dynamical fields, gauge invariant field equations, Bianchi identities etc. In the paper the $σ_-$-cohomology is computed for all gauge theories of this type and the field-theoretical in…
Using unfolded formulation of free equations for massless fields of all spins we obtain explicit form of higher-spin conformal conserved charges bilinear in 4d massless fields of arbitrary spins.
In this paper we construct an unfolded formulation for the massive bosonic higher spins in three dimensions as well as for their partially massless limit of the maximal depth. We begin with the equations for the one-forms coming from the frame-like gauge invariant Lagrangians for such fields and then we supplement them with the infinite number of equations for the appropriately chosen set of zero-forms.
A frame-like action for massless mixed-symmetry fermionic fields in Minkowski space is constructed. The action is uniquely determined by gauge invariance.
A frame-like action for arbitrary mixed-symmetry bosonic massless fields in Minkowski space is constructed. The action is given in a simple form and consists of two terms for a field of any spin. The fields and gauge parameters are certain tensor-valued differential forms. The formulation is based on the unfolded form of equations for mixed-symmetry fields.
We consider in detail the structure of quartic vertices for massless higher spin fields on Minkowski background, and study the consistency conditions imposed on cubic and quartic interactions by symmetries of the S--matrix. We discuss the possibility of generalizing the construction of quartic vertices to D-dimensional anti-de Sitter space.
The Casimir effect has been studied for various quantum fields in both flat and curved spacetimes. As a further step along this line, we provide an explicit derivation of Casimir effect for massless spin-3/2 field with periodic boundary condition imposed in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. The corresponding results with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are also discussed.
We solve Klein-Gordon equation for massless scalars on d+1 dimensional Minkowski (Euclidean) space in terms of the Cauchy data on the hypersurface t=0. By inserting the solution into the action of massless scalars in Minkowski (Euclidean) space we obtain the action of dual theory on the boundary t=0 which is exactly the holographic dual of conformally coupled scalars on d+1 dimensional (Euclidean anti) de Sitter space obtained in (A)dS/CFT correspondence. The observed equivalence of dual theories is explained using the one-to-one map between conformally coupled scalar fields on Minkowski (Eucl…
In Vasiliev's unfolded formulation of higher-spin dynamics the standard fields are embedded on-shell into covariantly constant master fields valued in Lorentz-covariant slices of the star-product algebra A of functions on the singleton phase space. Correspondingly, the harmonic expansion is taken over compact slices of A that are unitarizable in a rescaled trace-norm rather than the standard Killing norm. Motivated by the higher-derivative nature of the theory, we examine indecomposable unitarizable Harish-Chandra modules consisting of standard massless particles plus linearized runaway soluti…
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.
In this paper we extend our recent results (hep-th/0304067) on the first order formulation for the massless mixed symmetry tensor fields to the case of massive fields both in Minkowski as well as in (Anti) de Sitter spaces (including all possible massless and partially massless limits). Main physical results are essentially the same as in hep-th/0211233.
Following the general formalism presented in arXiv:0812.3615 -- referred to as Paper I -- we derive the unfolded equations of motion for tensor fields of arbitrary shape and mass in constantly curved backgrounds by radial reduction of Skvortsov's equations in one higher dimension. The complete unfolded system is embedded into a single master field, valued in a tensorial Schur module realized equivalently via either bosonic (symmetric basis) or fermionic (anti-symmetric basis) vector oscillators. At critical masses the reduced Weyl zero-form modules become indecomposable. We explicitly project …
We discuss the possibility of localizing Einstein gravity on a three-brane embedded in a five-dimensional Minkowski space by giving a space-dependent mass to the graviton. We show that, with an overall fine tuning of the mass profile, it is possible to localize a massless graviton with a finite mass gap from the massive Kaluza-Klein modes. The theory does not contain ghosts and no scalar massless mode is sourced by brane matter. A massless vector mode is strongly coupled to the flux of energy-momentum into the extra dimension, so that it is not sourced as long as only brane-localized matter is…
In this paper we give explicit gauge invariant Lagrangian formulation for massive theories based on mixed symmetry tensors Φ_{[μν],α}, T_{[μνα],β} and R_{[μν],[αβ]} both in Minkowski as well as in (Anti) de Sitter spaces. In particular, we study all possible massless and partially massless limits for such theories in (A)dS.
We construct a concise gauge invariant formulation for massless, partially massless, and massive bosonic AdS fields of arbitrary symmetry type at the level of equations of motion. Our formulation admits two equivalent descriptions: in terms of the ambient space and in terms of an appropriate vector bundle, as an explicitly local first-order BRST formalism. The second version is a parent-like formulation that can be used to generate various other formulations via equivalent reductions. In particular, we demonstrate a relation to the unfolded description of massless and partially massless fields…
The last decade of research on $κ$-Minkowski noncommutative spacetime has been strongly characterized by a controversy concerning the speed of propagation of massless particles. Most arguments suggested that this speed should depend on the momentum of the particle strongly enough to be of interest for some ongoing experimental studies. But the only explicit derivations of worldlines in $κ$-Minkowski predicted no momentum dependence for the speed of massless particles. We return to this controversy equipped with the recent understanding (arXiv:1006.2126, arXiv:1007.0718, arXiv:1008.2962, arXiv:…
A constructive procedure is proposed for formulation of linear differential equations invariant under global symmetry transformations forming a semi-simple Lie algebra f. Under certain conditions f-invariant systems of differential equations are shown to be associated with f-modules that are integrable with respect to some parabolic subalgebra of f. The suggested construction is motivated by the unfolded formulation of dynamical equations developed in the higher spin gauge theory and provides a starting point for generalization to the nonlinear case. It is applied to the conformal algebra o(M,…
We study a novel class of higher derivative theories for interacting massless gravitons in Minkowski spacetime. These theories were first discussed by Wald decades ago, and are characterized by scattering amplitudes essentially different from general relativity and many of its modifications. We discuss various aspects of these higher derivative theories, including the Lagrangian construction, violation of asymptotic causality, scattering amplitudes, non-renormalization, and possible implications on emergent gravitons from condensed matter systems.
Quantum inequalities have been established for various quantum fields in both flat and curved spacetimes. In particular, for spin-3/2 fields, Yu and Wu have explicitly derived quantum inequalities for massive case. Employing the similar method developed by Fewster and colleagues, this paper provides an explicit formula of quantum inequalities for massless spin-3/2 field in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime.
A conformally invariant model of two interacting massless particles in Minkowski space was proposed by Casalbuoni and Gomis [1]. We generalize this model to the case of de Sitter space from the perspective of geodesic distance, in such a way that the resulting, generalized action reduces to the original action in a limit that de Sitter radius goes to infinity. We analyze the Hamiltonian formulation in accordance with Dirac's prescription for constrained Hamiltonian systems and carry out its subsequent canonical quantization in coordinate representation following DeWitt. As the result, we deriv…
Starting with an indecomposable Poincare module M_0 induced from a given irreducible Lorentz module we construct a free Poincare invariant gauge theory defined on the Minkowski space. The space of its gauge inequivalent solutions coincides with (in general, is closely related to) the starting point module M_0. We show that for a class of indecomposable Poincare modules the resulting theory is a Lagrangian gauge theory of the mixed-symmetry higher spin fields. The procedure is based on constructing the parent formulation of the theory. The Labastida formulation and the unfolded description of t…
The quantum energy-momentum tensor ${\hat T}^{μν}(x)$ is computed for strings in Minkowski space-time. We compute its expectation value for different physical string states both for open and closed bosonic strings. The states considered are described by normalizable wave-packets in the center of mass coordinates. We find in particular that ${\hat T}^{μν}(x)$ is {\bf finite} which could imply that the classical divergence that occurs in string theory as we approach the string position is removed at the quantum level as the string position is smeared out by quantum fluctuations. For massive stri…
We derive the Lagrangian for a new model of a massive rank-4 tensor field with generalized spin (2,1,1) in Minkowski spacetime of any dimension d>5, by using dimensional reduction applied to a reducible gauge model of a massless rank-4 tensor field with generalized spin (2,1,1) in Minkowski spacetime of dimension d+1.
Gauge invariant conserved conformal currents built from massless fields of all spins in 4d Minkowski space-time and $AdS_4$ are described within the unfolded dynamics approach. The current cohomology associated with non-zero conserved charges is found. The resulting list of charges is shown to match the space of parameters of the conformal higher-spin symmetry algebra in four dimensions.
A complete and explicit classification of generalized, or local, symmetries of massless free fields of spin $s \geq 1/2$ is carried out. Up to equivalence, these are found to consists of the conformal symmetries and their duals, new chiral symmetries of order $2s$, and their higher-order extensions obtained by Lie differentiation with respect to conformal Killing vectors. In particular, the results yield a complete classification of generalized symmetries of the Dirac-Weyl neutrino equation, Maxwell's equations, and the linearized gravity equations.
Motivated by the desire to understand the causal structure of physical signals produced in curved spacetimes -- particularly around black holes -- we show how, for certain classes of geometries, one might obtain its retarded or advanced minimally coupled massless scalar Green's function by using the corresponding Green's functions in the higher dimensional Minkowski spacetime where it is embedded. Analogous statements hold for certain classes of curved Riemannian spaces, with positive definite metrics, which may be embedded in higher dimensional Euclidean spaces. The general formula is applied…
We consider in detail the analytic behaviour of the non-interacting massless scalar field two-point function in H.S. Snyder's discretized non-commuting spacetime. The propagator we find is purely real on the Euclidean side of the complex $p^2$ plane and goes like $1/p^2$ as $p^2\to 0$ from either the Euclidean or Minkowski side. The real part of the propagator goes smoothly to zero as $p^2$ increases to the discretization scale $1/a^2$ and remains zero for $p^2>1/a^2$. This behaviour is consistent with the termination of single-particle propagation on the ultraviolet side of the discretization…
We discuss twistor-like interpretation of the $Sp(8)$ invariant formulation of 4d massless fields in ten dimensional Lagrangian Grassmannian $Sp(8)/P$ which is the generalized space-time in this framework. The correspondence space $\mathbf{C}$ is $SpH(8)/PH$ where $SpH(8)$ is the semidirect product of $Sp(8)$ with Heisenberg group $\HG$ and $PH$ is some quasiparabolic subgroup of $SpH(8)$. Spaces of functions on $Sp(8)/P$ and $SpH(8)/PH$ consist of $Q_P $ closed functions on $Sp(8)$ and $Q_{PH} $ closed functions on $SpH(8)$, where $Q_P $ and $Q_{PH}$ are canonical BRST operators of $P$ and $P…
In this paper we consider frame-like formulation for mixed symmetry spin-tensors corresponding to arbitrary Young tableau with two rows. First of all, we extend Skvortsov formulation for massless mixed symmetry bosonic fields in flat Minkowski space to the case of massless fermionic fields. Then, using such massless fields as building blocks, we construct gauge invariant formulation for massive spin-tensors with the same symmetry properties. We give general massive theories in (A)dS spaces with arbitrary cosmological constant and investigate all possible massless and partially massless limits.
We discuss the semiclassical scattering problem for massless matter coupled to Rarita-Schwinger field in four dimensional Minkowski space. We rewrite the soft gravitino theorem as a Ward identity for the S-matrix and discuss the relationship of corresponding symmetry charges to new asymptotic fermonic symmetries of massless Rarita-Schwinger field.
We propose a unified BRST formulation of general massless fermionic fields of arbitrary mixed-symmetry type in $d$-dimensional Minkowski space. Depending on the value of the real parameter the system describes either helicity fields or continuous spin fields. Starting with the unified formulation we derive a number of equivalent descriptions including the triplet formulation, Fang-Fronsdal-Labastida formulation, light-cone formulation and discuss the unfolded formulation.
We elaborate on the Green's functions that appeared in [1,2] when generalizing, from massless to massive particles, various equivalences between soft theorems and Ward identities of large gauge symmetries. We analyze these Green's functions in considerable detail and show that they form a hierarchy of functions which describe `boundary to bulk' propagators for large $U(1)$ gauge parameters, supertranslations and sphere vector fields respectively. As a consistency check we verify that the Green's functions associated to the large diffeomorphisms map the Poincare group at null infinity to the Po…
Conserved currents of any spin $t>0$ built from symmetric massless gauge fields of any integer spin $s \geq t$ in {4d} Minkowski space are found. In particular, stress-energy tensor for a higher-spin field of any spin is constructed. Analogously to spin-two stress (pseudo)tensor, currents considered in this paper are not gauge invariant. However, they are shown to generate gauge invariant conserved charges. Besides expected parity even HS currents, we found unexpected parity odd currents that generate less symmetries than the even ones. It is argued that these odd currents unlikely admit a con…
We construct supersymmetric M3-brane solutions in D=11 supergravity. They can be viewed as deformations of backgrounds taking the form of a direct product of four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime and a non-compact Ricci-flat manifold of G_2 holonomy. Although the 4-form field strength is turned on it carries no charge, and the 3-branes are correspondingly massless. We also obtain 3-branes of a different type, arising as M5-branes wrapped over S^2.
The $sp(8, R)$ invariant formulation of free field equations of massless fields of all spins in $AdS_4$ available previously in terms of gauge invariant field strengths is extended to gauge potentials. As a by-product, free field equations for a massless gauge field are shown to possess both $su(2,2)\sim o(4,2)$ and $sl(4,R)\sim o(3,3)$ symmetry. The proposed formulation is well-defined in the $AdS_4$ background but experiences certain degeneracy in the flat limit that does not allow conformal invariant field equations for spin $s>1$ gauge fields in Minkowski space. The basis model involves th…
We prove that the van Dam-Veltman-Zakharov discontinuity arising in the massless limit of massive gravity theories is peculiar to Minkowski space and it is not present in Anti De Sitter space, where the massless limit is smooth. More generally, the massless limit is smooth whenever the square of the graviton mass vanishes faster than the cosmological constant.
We provide an explicit Lagrangian construction for the massless infinite spin N=1 supermultiplet in four dimensional Minkowski space. Such a supermultiplet contains a pair of massless bosonic and a pair of massless fermionic infinite spin fields with properly adjusted dimensionful parameters. We begin with the gauge invariant Lagrangians for such massless infinite spin bosonic and fermionic fields and derive the supertransformations which leave the sum of their Lagrangians invariant. It is shown that the algebra of these supertransformations is closed on-shell.
The generating function of correlators of dual operators on the boundary of (A)dS4 space corresponding to the conformally coupled $ϕ^4$-model is obtained up to first order in the coupling constant by using the conformal map between massless scalar fields in (Euclidean) Minkowski space and conformally coupled scalars on (Euclidean anti) de Sitter space. Some exact classical solutions of the nonlinear wave equation of massless (conformally coupled) $ϕ^3$, $ϕ^4$ and $ϕ^6$-models in D=6,4,3 Euclidean/Minkowski (AdS/dS) spaces are obtained.
In this paper, a gauge invariant description of massive higher spin bosonic and fermionic particles in frame-like Lagrangian and unfolded formalism in (A)dS${}_4$ is built. A complete set of gauge invariant object is also constructed and the Lagrangian is rewritten in terms of these objects. The unitarity of the theories is studied alongside with the partially massless limits. The calculations are carried out in the multispinor formalism, which simplifies them and is particularly convenient for the supersymmetry studies.
We have computed the black body radiation spectra in $κ-$Minkowski space-time, using the quantum mechanical picture of massless scalar particles as well as effective quantum field theory picture. The black body radiation depends on how the field theory (and thus how the $κ-$Poincaré algebra) handles the ordering effect of the noncommutative space-time. In addition, there exists a natural momentum cut-off of the order $κ$, beyond which a new real mode takes its shape from a complex mode and the old real mode flows out to be a new complex mode. However, the new high momentum real mode should not…
Using a quantum field theoretic setting, we present evidence for dimensional reduction of any sub-volume of Minkowksi space. First, we show that correlation functions of a class of operators restricted to a sub-volume of D-dimensional Minkowski space scale as its surface area. A simple example of such area scaling is provided by the energy fluctuations of a free massless quantum field in its vacuum state. This is reminiscent of area scaling of entanglement entropy but applies to quantum expectation values in a pure state, rather than to statistical averages over a mixed state. We then show, in…
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…
The dynamical commutators of the light-front Poincaré algebra yield first order differential equations in the $p^+$ momenta for the interaction vertex operators. The homogeneous solution to the equation for the quartic vertex is studied. Consequences as regards the constructibility assumption of quartic higher spin amplitudes from cubic amplitudes are discussed. The existence of quartic contact interactions unrelated to cubic interactions by Poincaré symmetry indicates that the higher spin S-matrix is not constructible. Thus quartic amplitude based no-go results derived by BCFW recursion for M…
Massless fields of generic Young symmetry type in $AdS_d$ space are analyzed. It is demonstrated that in contrast to massless fields in Minkowski space whose physical degrees of freedom transform in irreps of $o(d-2)$ algebra, $AdS$ massless mixed symmetry fields reduce to a number of irreps of $o(d-2)$ algebra. From the field theory perspective this means that not every massless field in flat space admits a deformation to $AdS_d$ with the same number of degrees of freedom, because it is impossible to keep all of the flat space gauge symmetries unbroken in the AdS space. An equivalent statemen…
We study massive and massless conical defects in Minkowski and de Sitter spaces in various spacetime dimensions. The energy-momentum of a defect, considered as an (extended) relativistic object, is completely characterized by the holonomy of the connection associated with its spacetime metric. The possible holonomies are given by Lorentz group elements, which are rotations and null rotations for massive and massless defects respectively. In particular, if we fix the direction of propagation of a massless defect in n+1-dimensional Minkowski space, then its space of holonomies is a maximal abeli…
We show how cosmological correlation functions of massless fields can be rewritten in terms of Minkowski correlation functions, by extracting symmetry-breaking operators from the cosmological correlators. This technique simplifies some cosmological calculations. Also, known properties of Minkowski correlation functions can be translated to non-trivial properties of cosmological correlations. To illustrate this idea, inflation to Minkowski and matter bounce to Minkowski relations are presented for the interactions of general single field inflation. And a Minkowski recursion relation is translat…
We discuss the notion of tensionless limit in quantum bosonic string theory, especially in flat Minkowski space, noncompact group manifolds (e.g., SL(2,R)) and coset manifolds (e.g., AdS). We show that in curved space typically there exists a critical value of the tension which is related to the critical value of the level of the corresponding affine algebra. We argue that at the critical level the sring theory becomes tensionless and that there exists a huge new symmetry of the theory. We dicuss the appearence of the higher spin massless states at the critical level.
