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arXiv · 1312.2768

Supertwistors and massive particles

Luca Mezincescu·Alasdair J. Routh·Paul K. Townsend
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Abstract

In the (super)twistor formulation of massless (super)particle mechanics, the mass-shell constraint is replaced by a "spin-shell" constraint from which the spin content can be read off. We extend this formalism to massive (super)particles (with N-extended spacetime supersymmetry) in three and four space-time dimensions, explaining how the spin-shell constraints are related to spin, and we use it to prove equivalence of the massive N=1 and BPS-saturated N=2 superparticle actions. We also find the supertwistor form of the action for "spinning particles" with N-extended worldline supersymmetry, massless in four dimensions and massive in three dimensions, and we show how this simplifies special features of the N=2 case.

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Luca Mezincescu, Alasdair J. Routh, Paul K. Townsend. 2013-12-10. Supertwistors and massive particles. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aop.2014.04.007

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