Electrodynamics of spin 3/2 and higher spin extensions of the standard model

by Konstantin Savvidy (Nanjing University)

Wednesday 5 May 2010, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Stockholm

CoPS group room (A5:1041)

Particle theories with particles of spin higher than one have held the attention of researchers with the promise for new physics and continue to do so. The Standard Model is built primarily out of spin 1/2 matter and spin 1 gauge fields. Presence of higher spin matter and gauge particles is a generic feature of string theory and sharply contrasts with the generic prediction of Kaluza-Klein-type theories with partners of the same spin and supersymmetry with partners of spin lower by 1/2. Moreover because quantum numbers of any new particles are highly constrained, for example by the requirement of anomaly cancellation, it has been argued that it may be very difficult to measure the spin of such partner particles by direct measurement. Therefore, it is important to develop quantitative theories which can distinguish between supersymmetric, Kaluza-Klein and higher-spin partners. Also, conventional field theory of higher-spin interacting non-abelian tensor gauge fields has been constructed by G. Savvidy and collaborators. In light of these developments, it becomes urgent to develop phenomenologically realistic extensions of the Standard Model, incorporating the new gauge theory of higher spin. On this path, the major obstacle is the obscure status of interacting half-integer fermionic matter fields. In this talk I will present work on the details of interactions of spin 3/2 charged matter particle with spin 1 abelian gauge field.