2002/10/31 by Andre Gsponer, Jean-Pierre Hurni
Physics and Astronomy · Mathematics · #math-ph #math.MP
published as Hadronic J. 26 (2003) 327-350 · To appear in the special issue of "Hadronic Journal" on higher-spins and strong interactions, 24 pages, 2 tables, 1 appendix
arxiv created 2003/01/06 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
It is shown (1) that Lanczos's quaternionic formulation of Dirac's equation does not lead to a solution of the problems that plague the standard spin 3/2 theory based on the Rarita-Schwinger equation, but (2) that the four-component solutions to the quaternionic generalization of Dirac's equation proposed by Lanczos in 1929 may provide a consistent theory for spin 3/2 particles, although at the cost of giving up the postulate that there should be a one-to-one correspondence between arbitrary-high-spin unitary representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group and elementary particles.