Ordinary-derivative formulation of conformal totally symmetric arbitrary spin bosonic fields

TL;DR

This paper develops a second-derivative (ordinary-derivative) gauge-invariant formulation for conformal totally symmetric arbitrary spin bosonic fields in flat space-time, establishing equivalence with higher-derivative approaches and analyzing their degrees of freedom.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ordinary-derivative gauge-invariant formulation for conformal bosonic fields of arbitrary spin, including gauge transformations and symmetry realizations.

Findings

Gauge invariant Lagrangian and transformations derived

Equivalence between ordinary-derivative and higher-derivative formulations demonstrated

On-shell degrees of freedom analyzed

Abstract

Conformal totally symmetric arbitrary spin bosonic fields in flat space-time of even dimension greater than or equal to four are studied. Second-derivative (ordinary-derivative) formulation for such fields is developed. We obtain gauge invariant Lagrangian and the corresponding gauge transformations. Gauge symmetries are realized by involving the Stueckelberg and auxiliary fields. Realization of global conformal boost symmetries on conformal gauge fields is obtained. Modified de Donder gauge condition and de Donder-Stueckelberg gauge condition are introduced. Using the de Donder-Stueckelberg gauge frame, equivalence of the ordinary-derivative and higher-derivative approaches is demonstrated. On-shell degrees of freedom of the arbitrary spin conformal field are analyzed. Ordinary-derivative light-cone gauge Lagrangian of conformal fields is also presented. Interrelations between the ordinary-derivative gauge invariant formulation of conformal fields and the gauge invariant formulation of massive fields are discussed.