Supertwistors and massive particles

Abstract

In the (super)twistor formulation of massless (super)particle mechanics, the mass-shell constraint is replaced by a "spin-shell" constraint from which the spin content can be read off. We extend this formalism to massive (super)particles (with N-extended spacetime supersymmetry) in three and four space-time dimensions, explaining how the spin-shell constraints are related to spin, and we use it to prove equivalence of the massive N=1 and BPS-saturated N=2 superparticle actions. We also find the supertwistor form of the action for "spinning particles" with N-extended worldline supersymmetry, massless in four dimensions and massive in three dimensions, and we show how this simplifies special features of the N=2 case.

41 pages. v2 has many additional references, and more details of "hidden" supersymmetries of massive superparticle actions. New format in v3, which corrects typos and includes alternative massive 4D superparticle action with only first-class constraints

References in corpus (3)

• Tractors, Mass and Weyl Invariance
• Semionic Supersymmetric Solitons
• Supertwistors, massive superparticles and k-symmetry

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Massless particles in five and higher dimensions
• Supertwistor formulation for massless superparticle in $Ad{S}_5\times S^5$ superspace
• Manifestly Covariant Worldline Actions from Coadjoint Orbits. Part I: Generalities and Vectorial Descriptions
• Massless finite and infinite spin representations of Poincaré group in six dimensions
• Two-Component Spinorial Formalism using Quaternions for Six-dimensional Spacetimes
• Twistors and the massive spinning particle
• Multitwistor mechanics of massless superparticle on $Ad{S}_5\times S^5$ superbackground
• Twistor form of massive 6D superparticle
• Pauli-Lubanski, Supertwistors, and the Superspinning Particle
• A no-go theorem for the $n$-twistor description of a massive particle
• Worldline CPT and massless supermultiplets
• Twistor formulation of a massive particle with rigidity
• Twistor formulation of massless $6D$ infinite spin fields
• Inhomogeneous transformations in a gauged twistor formulation of a massive particle