Time: 10:00 am Mar. 1 (Wed.), 2023

Location: 4th floor meeting room, Buiding 7, UCAS Zhonguancun campus

Speaker: Alexander Ochirov (London Institute for Mathematical Sciences)

Abstract:

Quantum field theory of higher-spin particles is a formidable subject, where preserving the physical number of degrees of freedom in the Lorentz-invariant way requires a host of auxiliary fields. They can be chosen to have a rich gauge-symmetry structure, but introducing consistent interactions in such approaches is still a non-trivial task, with massive higher-spin Lagrangians specified only up to three points. In this talk, I will discuss a new, chiral description for massive higher-spin particles, which in four spacetime dimensions allows to do away with the unphysical degrees of freedom. This greatly facilitates the introduction of consistent interactions. I will concentrate on three theories, in which higher-spin matter is coupled to electrodynamics, non-Abelian gauge theory or gravity. These theories are currently the only examples of consistently interacting field theories with massive higher-spin fields. I will conclude by discussing current work on their generalizations.

Link to the original paper: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.241601