Spin of Chern-Simons vortices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to calculate the fractional spin of Chern-Simons vortices, showing it as a boundary term dependent only on gauge fields, unaffected by matter coupling or Maxwell addition.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to determine fractional spin as a boundary term, independent of matter sector and Maxwell term modifications.

Findings

Fractional spin is a boundary term depending solely on gauge fields.

Adding Maxwell term does not change the fractional spin.

Method applies to both abelian and nonabelian Chern-Simons vortices.

Abstract

We discuss a novel method of obtaining the fractional spin of abelian and nonabelian Chern-Simons vortices. This spin is interpreted as the difference between the angular momentum obtained by modifying Schwinger's energy momentum tensor by the Gauss constraint, and the canonical (Noether) angular momentum. It is found to be a boundary term depending only on the gauge field and, hence, is independent of the matter sector to which the Chern-Simons term couples. Addition of the Maxwell term does not alter the fractional spin.