Relativistic Particle on Light-Front

Abstract: We study Wigner's classification of massive one particle state in a general moving frame in the front form of Lorentz group, characterized and labeled by a special null vector -- reference vector. The little group transformation turns out to be equivalent to a change of reference vector, which also gives a concrete formula to compute the Wigner D-matrices with a general momentum. The little group transformation and Wigner D-matrices have both continuous zero momentum limit and infinite boost (massless) limit, a property that can be called massive-massless continuation. We then apply those results to massive spin-1 particle and compute the corresponding Wigner D-matrices. The resulting polarization vectors are equivalent to those in spinor-helicity formalism. In the massless limit, it is shown that longitudinal polarization decouples from the spectrum. The $\epsilon^\mu_\pm \rightarrow \epsilon^\mu_\pm +\xi k^\mu$ shift turns out to be remnant of this decoupling, with $\xi$ computable from the Wigner D-matrix. Thus in our construction, massless spin-1 particle can be defined as the infinite boost limit of massive spin-1 particle. Our results also give us a deeper understanding of gauge symmetry: it can be understood as the equivalence between obtaining the massless limit for polarization vectors through different reference vectors.