Abstract
We propose the first covariant local action describing the propagation of a single free continuous-spin degree of freedom. The theory is simply formulated as a gauge theory in a “vector superspace,” but can also be formulated in terms of a tower of symmetric tensor gauge fields. When the spin invariant vanishes, the helicity correspondence is manifest—familiar gauge theory actions are recovered and couplings to conserved currents can easily be introduced. For nonzero , a tower of tensor currents must be present, of which only the lowest rank is exactly conserved. A paucity of local gauge-invariant operators for nonzero suggests that the equations of motion in any interacting theory should be covariant, not invariant, under a generalization of the free theory’s gauge symmetry.
- Received 7 September 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.025023
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