Light-cone gauge versus proper-time gauge for massless spinning particles

Abstract

Although the light-cone gauge is convenient for many applications in physics, it is known to distort topology. We show that as a consequence, some interesting, possibly physical, features of a quantum theory may be missed when working in the light-cone gauge. We shall illustrate this by examining the description of massless spinning particles in an arbitrary number of space-time dimensions. When quantizing such particles in four space-time dimensions (without introducing Grassmann degrees of freedom), the light-cone gauge yields a purely bosonic spectrum, i.e. the helicity λ is integer-valued. The problem is rectified by going to the proper-time gauge; there λ = 0, ± 12 ± 1, …. Upon using the proper-time gauge to quantize massless particle systems in more than four space-time dimensions, we find the following interesting features: Except for space-time dimension d equal to 5 and 9, (i) wave functions cannot be expressed as global functions of momentum (or position). (This is also true for d = 4.) Further, for d ≠ 5 and 9, (ii) the helicity group Spin (d - 2) and (iii) canonical position operators do not exist, globally. (The result that helicity cannot be globally defined resembles a known property of nonabelian monopoles arising in grand unified theories. There, topological obstructions prevent one from defining the color group, globally.) All of the features (i)-(iii) are missed when working in the light-cone gauge.