Electromagnetic Interactions of Massive Higher-Spin Fields in 3D via Chiral Theory

Abstract: We address the issue of electromagnetic interaction for massive higher-spin fields in $3d$ Minkowski space. We show that consistent field equations can be obtained through the dimensional reduction of the higher-spin extension of self-dual Yang-Mills theory, which itself is a truncation of chiral higher-spin gravity in four dimensions. The resulting electromagnetic field satisfies the Bogomolny equation, and the interaction is non-minimal with the gyromagnetic ratio given by $g=1/s$, where $s$ is the spin. As a by-product, we obtain a new Lagrangian for free massive higher-spin fields in $3d$.