1998/12/16 by H. Haberzettl, Helmut Haberzettl, Haberzettl, Helmut · 2 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.nucl-th/9812043
7 pages, RevTeX. Abstract shortened; two equations added; a few typos corrected; some rewording done
openalex publication_date 1998/12/16 · arxiv created 1998/12/19 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The propagation of an off-shell spin-3/2 baryon is investigated in a consistent framework using projections corresponding to one irreducible spin-3/2 and two irreducible spin-1/2 representations arising from the usual spinor-vector representation of the spin-3/2 fields. Starting from the most general Lagrangian invariant under point transformations containing first-order derivatives only and imposing the constraint γμψμ=0, we eliminate one of the spin-1/2 contributions. The resulting propagator provides a clean separation of spin-3/2 proper and the one remaining spin-1/2 contribution. In addition to a conventional pole term describing pure spin-3/2, which is identical to the propagator proposed by Williams, this procedure yields a second pole term describing spin-1/2 only, with a pole at twice the mass parameter of the Lagrangian. Its effect on physical observables may manifest itself in a manner which is indistinguishable from a particle in its own right. The second pole term cancels the 1/p2 singularity of the Williams propagator and the propagator derived here is well behaved for vanishing p2.