Twistor formulation of a massive particle with rigidity (1707.04713v3)

Abstract: A massive rigid particle model in $(3+1)$ dimensions is reformulated in terms of twistors. Beginning with a first-order Lagrangian, we establish a twistor representation of the Lagrangian for a massive particle with rigidity. The twistorial Lagrangian derived in this way remains invariant under a local $U(1) \times U(1)$ transformation of the twistor and other relevant variables. Considering this fact, we carry out a partial gauge-fixing so as to make our analysis simple and clear. We develop the canonical Hamiltonian formalism based on the gauge-fixed Lagrangian and perform the canonical quantization procedure of the Hamiltonian system. Also, we obtain an arbitrary-rank massive spinor field in $(3+1)$ dimensions via the Penrose transform of a twistor function defined in the quantization procedure. Then we prove, in a twistorial fashion, that the spin quantum number of a massive particle with rigidity can take only non-negative integer values, which result is in agreement with the one shown earlier by Plyushchay. Interestingly, the mass of the spinor field is determined depending on the spin quantum number.