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theorems:weinberg-witten_theorem

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Weinberg-Witten Theorem

Why is it interesting?

"The Weinberg–Witten theorem states that a massless particle of spin strictly greater than one cannot possess an energy-momentum tensor Tμ which is both Lorentz covariant and gauge invariant. Of course, this no-go theorem does not preclude gravitational interactions. In the spin-two case, it implies that there cannot exist any gauge-invariant energy-momentum tensor for the graviton."https://arxiv.org/abs/1007.0435

Layman?

Explanations in this section should contain no formulas, but instead colloquial things like you would hear them during a coffee break or at a cocktail party.

Student

A good introduction to the theorem and its meaning can be found in "The Weinberg-Witten theorem on massless particles: an essay" by Florian Loebbert

Researcher

Frequently occurring scientific expressions will be abbreviated: quantum field theory (QFT). local quantum physics (LQP), point-like (pl), string-like (sl), string-local quantum field theory (SLFT), power-counting bound (pcb), spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), string theory (ST), the Becchi-RouetStora-Tyutin gauge formalism (BRST).

[…]

This does not only lead to the sl replacement of the missing pl massless potential but it also defuses a No-Go theorem by Weinberg and Witten claiming that massless energy-momentum tensors do not exist for s ≥ 2 [37]. The correct statement is that pl conserved massless E-M tensors do not exist; they have to be replaced by sl E-M tensors which are different as densities but lead to the same global charges (generators of the Poincare group).

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1612.00003.pdf

Common Question 1
Common Question 2

Examples

Example1
Example2:

History

theorems/weinberg-witten_theorem.1514898346.txt.gz · Last modified: 2018/01/02 13:05 (external edit)