Unitarity of conformal supergravity
The possibility of unitarizing the conformal supergravity of Kaku, Townsend, and van Nieuwenhuizen is investigated by examining the representation content of its linearized equations. Conformal (Weyl) gravitons are seen to correspond to a pair of helicity-conjugate, irreducible, and nonunitary representations of so(4,2). The solutions of the linearized gravitino field equation are seen to carry both unitary and nonunitary representations of so(4,2). The linearized constraint equation of Kaku et al., however, removes the unitary content from the gravitino field equation. The solution space of the linearized constraint and field equations of conformal supergravity is seen to carry a direct sum of two nonunitary and irreducible representations of the superalgebra su(2,2/1). These results imply that current models of conformal supergravity cannot be unitarized without breaking both su(2,2/1) and so(4,2) symmetries. A suggestion as to how one might construct a unitary model of conformal supergravity is made.
- Research Organization:
- Department of Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024
- OSTI ID:
- 5747935
- Journal Information:
- Phys. Rev. D; (United States), Vol. 31:10
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
SUPERGRAVITY
UNITARITY
EIGENSTATES
FIELD EQUATIONS
GRAVITONS
HELICITY
HILBERT SPACE
MINKOWSKI SPACE
PROPAGATOR
RENORMALIZATION
SO GROUPS
SYMMETRY BREAKING
BANACH SPACE
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GRAVITATIONAL RADIATION
LIE GROUPS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
POSTULATED PARTICLES
RADIATIONS
SPACE
SYMMETRY GROUPS
UNIFIED-FIELD THEORIES
645400* - High Energy Physics- Field Theory
657003 - Theoretical & Mathematical Physics- Relativity & Gravitation