On spin-(3/2) systems in Ricci flat space–times

Abstract

The Dirac formulation of massless spin-(3/2) fields is discussed. The existence and uniqueness for the solutions of the spin-(3/2) field equations in Dirac form is proven. It is shown that the system of equations can be split into a symmetric hyperbolic system of evolution equations and a set of constraint equations. The constraints are shown to propagate on a curved manifold if and only if it is an Einstein space. The gauge freedom present in the spin-(3/2) system is discussed and it is shown that the complete system ‘‘solutions modulo gauge’’ has a well posed Cauchy problem if and only if the Einstein equations hold.