Sunday, September 30, 2018

quantum field theory - What does Weinberg–Witten theorem want to express?


Weinberg-Witten theorem states that massless particles (either composite or elementary) with spin j>1/2 cannot carry a Lorentz-covariant current, while massless particles with spin j>1 cannot carry a Lorentz-covariant stress-energy. The theorem is usually interpreted to mean that the graviton ( j=2 ) cannot be a composite particle in a relativistic quantum field theory.


Before I read its proof, I've not been able to understand this result. Because I can directly come up a counterexample, massless spin-2 field have a Lorentz covariant stress-energy tensor. For example the Lagrangian of massless spin-2 is massless Fierz-Pauli action:


S=d4x(12ahbcahbc+ahbcbhacahabbh+12ahah)


We can calculate its energy-stress tensor by Tab=2gδSδgab, so we get


Tab=12ahcdbhcd+ahcdchdb12ahchbc12chahbc+12ahbh+ηabL

which is obviously a non-zero Lorentz covariant stress-energy tensor.



And for U(1) massless spin-1 field, we can also have the energy-stress tensor Tab=FacFb   c14ηabFcdFcd

so we can construct a Lorentz covariant current Ja=d3xTa0 which is a Lorentz covariant current.


Therefore above two examples are seeming counterexamples of this theorem. I believe this theorem must be correct and I want to know why my above argument is wrong.



Answer





  1. The stress tensor for hab is not Lorentz covariant, despite the fact that it looks like it is. This is because hab itself is not a Lorentz tensor. Rather under Lorentz transformations habΛacΛbdhcd+aζb+bζa .

    The extra term is present to make up for the fact that hab is not a tensor of the Lorentz group. Plug this into the stress tensor and you will find that the stress tensor also transforms with a inhomogeneous piece thereby making it non-covariant.




  2. The photon is not charged under the U(1) gauge symmetry. Thus, its U(1) current is zero. The current you have defined is not the U(1) current. Rather it is the current corresponding to translations. Weinberg-Witten theorem has nothing to say about this current.





No comments:

Post a Comment

classical mechanics - Moment of a force about a given axis (Torque) - Scalar or vectorial?

I am studying Statics and saw that: The moment of a force about a given axis (or Torque) is defined by the equation: $M_X = (\vec r \times \...