Hamiltonian quantization of self-dual tensor fields and a bosonic Nielsen-Ninomiya theorem

Abstract

The quantization of self-dual tensor fields is carried out following the procedure of Batalin and Fradkin. The (anti) self-duality constraints (either fermionic or bosonic) in the action leads to the gravitational anomaly. In the process of gauge fixing, the impossibility of the co-existence of a positive hamiltonian and covariant action is shown. A version of the Nielsen-Ninomiya theorem applies to self-dual tensor fields viz. the lattice version of the theory shows species doubling with zero net chirality.