A Compendium of Sphere Path Integrals

Abstract

We study the manifestly covariant and local 1-loop path integrals on $S^{d+1}$ for general massive, shift-symmetric and (partially) massless totally symmetric tensor fields of arbitrary spin $s\ge 0$ in any dimensions $d\ge 2$. After reviewing the cases of massless fields with spin $s=1,2$, we provide a detailed derivation for path integrals of massless fields of arbitrary integer spins $s\ge 1$. Following the standard procedure of Wick-rotating the negative conformal modes, we find a higher spin analog of Polchinski's phase for any integer spin $s\ge 2$. The derivations for low-spin ($s=0,1,2$) massive, shift-symmetric and partially massless fields are also carried out explicitly. Finally, we provide general prescriptions for general massive and shift-symmetric fields of arbitrary integer spins and partially massless fields of arbitrary integer spins and depths.

54 pages; published version

References in corpus (4)

• Quantum W-symmetry in AdS_3
• Quantum de Sitter horizon entropy from quasicanonical bulk, edge, sphere and topological string partition functions
• de Sitter tachyons and related topics
• Manifest Duality for Partially Massless Higher Spins

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