2004/09/14 by W. A. Perkins, Perkins, W. A. · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Mathematical Theories and Applications #Algebraic and Geometric Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-ph/0409166
LaTex, 11 pages, 2 Postscript (EPS) figures, 16 references
arxiv created 2004/09/14 · openalex publication_date 2004/09/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this paper we consider the possibility that a vector particle with mass might exist in only one helicity state, rather than the usual three states with helicity equal to +1, -1, and 0. Massless particles, of course, need only have one helicity state. (For invariance under parity, they need two.) We show that a massive vector particle can exist only in the helicity-0 state, if it is composed of a fermion-antifermion pair and they are massless. This requires the mass to be generated by the interaction between the massless particles. An interaction of the form Psidagger i gamma4 gammamu Psi is attractive between particle and antiparticle and preserves helicity. Methods for experimentally distinguishing an helicity-0 vector particle from both a spin-0 pseudoscalar particle and a spin-1 vector particle are discussed.