Fermion localization mechanism with derivative geometrical coupling on branes

Abstract: In order to localize fermions on branes with codimension one, one usually introduces the Yukawa coupling between fermions and background scalar fields or the recently proposed derivative fermion-scalar coupling in [Phys. Rev. D 89 (2014) 086001]. In this paper, we explore the coupling between a spinor field $\Psi$ and the scalar curvature of spacetime $R$, $\eta\Psi\Gamma^M\partial_M F(R)\gamma^5\bar{\Psi}$ with $F(R)$ a function of $R$, to investigate localization of the fermion. Because of $Z_2$ symmetry of the extra dimension, the new coupling mechanism proposed here can easily deal with the problem encountered in the Yukawa coupling with even background scalar fields. More importantly, the new mechanism will also work for the branes without background scalar fields. By investigating three examples, we find that fermions can be localized on the branes with the new mechanism.