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Spinning particles and higher spin fields on (A)dS backgrounds

Spinning particle models can be used to describe higher spin fields in first quantization. In this paper we discuss how spinning particles with gauged O(N) supersymmetries on the worldline can be consistently coupled to conformally flat spacetimes, both at the classical and at the quantum level. In particular, we consider canonical quantization on flat and on (A)dS backgrounds, and discuss in detail how the constraints due to the worldline gauge symmetries produce geometrical equations for higher spin fields, i.e. equations written in terms of generalized curvatures. On flat space the algebra of constraints is linear, and one can integrate part of the constraints by introducing gauge potentials. This way the equivalence of the geometrical formulation with the standard formulation in terms of gauge potentials is made manifest. On (A)dS backgrounds the algebra of constraints becomes quadratic, nevertheless one can use it to extend much of the previous analysis to this case. In particular, we derive general formulas for expressing the curvatures in terms of gauge potentials and discuss explicitly the cases of spin 2, 3 and 4.

Higher spin fields from a worldline perspective

Higher spin fields in four dimensions, and more generally conformal fields in arbitrary dimensions, can be described by spinning particle models with a gauged SO(N) extended supergravity on the worldline. We consider here the one-loop quantization of these models by studying the corresponding partition function on the circle. After gauge fixing the supergravity multiplet, the partition function reduces to an integral over the corresponding moduli space which is computed using orthogonal polynomial techniques. We obtain a compact formula which gives the number of physical degrees of freedom for all N in all dimensions. As an aside we compute the physical degrees of freedom of the SO(4) = SU(2) × SU(2) model with only a SU(2) factor gauged, which has attracted some interest in the literature.

Particles with non abelian charges

A bstractEfficient methods for describing non abelian charges in worldline approaches to QFT are useful to simplify calculations and address structural properties, as for example color/kinematics relations. Here we analyze in detail a method for treating arbitrary non abelian charges. We use Grassmann variables to take into account color degrees of freedom, which however are known to produce reducible representations of the color group. Then we couple them to a U(1) gauge field defined on the worldline, together with a Chern-Simons term, to achieve projection on an irreducible representation. Upon gauge fixing there remains a modulus, an angle parametrizing the U(1) Wilson loop, whose dependence is taken into account exactly in the propagator of the Grassmann variables. We test the method in simple examples, the scalar and spin 1/2 contribution to the gluon self energy, and suggest that it might simplify the analysis of more involved amplitudes.

Effective action for higher spin fields on (A)dS backgrounds

A bstractWe study the one loop effective action for a class of higher spin fields by using a first-quantized description. The latter is obtained by considering spinning particles, characterized by an extended local supersymmetry on the worldline, that can propagate consistently on conformally flat spaces. The gauge fixing procedure for calculating the worldline path integral on a loop is delicate, as the gauge algebra contains nontrivial structure functions. Restricting the analysis on (A)dS backgrounds simplifies the gauge fixing procedure, and allows us to produce a useful representation of the one loop effective action. In particular, we extract the first few heat kernel coefficients for arbitrary even spacetime dimension D and for spin S identified by a curvature tensor with the symmetries of a rectangular Young tableau of D/2 rows and [S] columns.

Poincare-Einstein Holography for Forms via Conformal Geometry in the Bulk

We study higher form Proca equations on Einstein manifolds with boundary data along conformal infinity. We solve these Laplace-type boundary problems formally, and to all orders, by constructing an operator which projects arbitrary forms to solutions. We also develop a product formula for solving these asymptotic problems in general. The central tools of our approach are (i) the conformal geometry of differential forms and the associated exterior tractor calculus, and (ii) a generalised notion of scale which encodes the connection between the underlying geometry and its boundary. The latter also controls the breaking of conformal invariance in a very strict way by coupling conformally invariant equations to the scale tractor associated with the generalised scale. From this, we obtain a map from existing solutions to new ones that exchanges Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. Together, the scale tractor and exterior structure extend the solution generating algebra of [31] to a conformally invariant, Poincare--Einstein calculus on (tractor) differential forms. This calculus leads to explicit holographic formulae for all the higher order conformal operators on weighted differential forms, differential complexes, and Q-operators of [9]. This complements the results of Aubry and Guillarmou [3] where associated conformal harmonic spaces parametrise smooth solutions.

Extended SUSY quantum mechanics: transition amplitudes and path integrals

Quantum mechanical models with extended supersymmetry find interesting applications in worldline approaches to relativistic field theories. In this paper we consider one-dimensional nonlinear sigma models with O(N) extended supersymmetry on the worldline, which are used in the study of higher spin fields on curved backgrounds. We calculate the transition amplitude for euclidean times (i.e. the heat kernel) in a perturbative expansion, using both canonical methods and path integrals. The latter are constructed using three different regularization schemes, and the corresponding counterterms that ensure scheme independence are explicitly identified.

(p,q)-form Kähler electromagnetism

We present a gauge invariant generalization of Maxwells equations and p-form electromagnetism to Kahler manifolds. The result is a detour operator connecting Dolbeault and dual Dolbeault cohomologies and derives from BRST detour quantization of the N=4 supersymmetry algebra. The form of the new equations mimics the linearized Einsteins equations and extends to more general geometric structures.

Metric Projective Geometry, BGG Detour Complexes and Partially Massless Gauge Theories

A projective geometry is an equivalence class of torsion free connections sharing the same unparametrised geodesics; this is a basic structure for understanding physical systems. Metric projective geometry is concerned with the interaction of projective and pseudo-Riemannian geometry. We show that the BGG machinery of projective geometry combines with structures known as Yang–Mills detour complexes to produce a general tool for generating invariant pseudo-Riemannian gauge theories. This produces (detour) complexes of differential operators corresponding to gauge invariances and dynamics. We show, as an application, that curved versions of these sequences give geometric characterizations of the obstructions to propagation of higher spins in Einstein spaces. Further, we show that projective BGG detour complexes generate both gauge invariances and gauge invariant constraint systems for partially massless models: the input for this machinery is a projectively invariant gauge operator corresponding to the first operator of a certain BGG sequence. We also connect this technology to the log-radial reduction method and extend the latter to Einstein backgrounds.

Quaternionic Kähler Detour Complexes and \({\mathcal{N} = 2}\) Supersymmetric Black Holes

We study a class of supersymmetric spinning particle models derived from the radial quantization of stationary, spherically symmetric black holes of four dimensional