Massless particles, conformal group, and de Sitter universe

Journal Article · Sun Mar 15 04:00:00 EST 1981 · Phys. Rev., D; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.23.1278· OSTI ID:6804735

Angelopoulos, E; Flato, M; Fronsdal, C; Sternheimer, D

We first review a recent result on the uniqueness of the extension to the conformal group of massless representations of the Poincare group. By restricting these representations to SO(3,2) we obtain a unique definition of massless particles in de Sitter space. This definition is compared with the concept of masslessness that arises from considerations of gauge invariance. Next, we recall the startling fact that the direct product of two Dirac singleton representations of SO(3,2) decomposes into a direct sum of the massless representations of SO(3,2). A theory of interacting singleton fields is developed and a simple expression is given for the intertwining operator between massless fields and two-singleton fields. Finally, we discuss the behavior of these massless representations with respect to the contraction of the de Sitter group to the Poincare group.

• Research Organization: Physique Mathematique, Faculte des Sciences-Mirande, 21000 Dijon, France
• OSTI ID: 6804735
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev., D; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev., D; (United States) Vol. 23:6; ISSN PRVDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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645400 -- High Energy Physics-- Field Theory
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CONFORMAL GROUPS
DE SITTER GROUP
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FIELD THEORIES
GAUGE INVARIANCE
HELICITY
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LIE GROUPS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
MINKOWSKI SPACE
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
POINCARE GROUPS
SO GROUPS
SPACE
SYMMETRY GROUPS
UNIVERSE