Majorana spinor

A Majorana spinor equals its charge conjugate. In the Weyl representation it can be written ${\psi }_M=(u_L,i{\sigma }^2{u}_L^{\ast }{)}^T$ from one left-handed Weyl spinor.

For a Majorana spinor $\lambda$ with odd Grassmann variables as components, ${\lambda }^{T}M\lambda$ sees only the antisymmetric part of $M$. With $C^T=-C$ and $({\gamma }^a{)}^T=-C{\gamma }^a{C}^{-1}$, reversing an antisymmetrized gamma product gives the displayed transpose rule. Thus the same-spinor vector and bivector bilinears vanish, whereas scalar, pseudoscalar and three-form bilinears can be nonzero. Four-dimensional Hodge duality gives the same vanishing result for a bivector multiplied by ${\gamma }_5$. Commuting spinors instead see the symmetric part, so their selection rule is different.

For Grassmann-odd four-dimensional Majorana spinors, choose $C^T=-C$ and $({\gamma }^a{)}^T=-C{\gamma }^a{C}^{-1}$. Then $C{\gamma }^a$ is symmetric whereas $C{\gamma }^{abc}$ is antisymmetric. Swapping Grassmann components therefore changes the sign of a vector bilinear but preserves a three-gamma bilinear. Integration by parts and antisymmetry of the vector indices then make the two spinor variations of the quadratic Rarita-Schwinger field action equal. Commuting auxiliary spinors have different interchange signs.

A Majorana-Weyl spinor satisfies both a Majorana spinor reality condition and a Weyl spinor chirality condition when dimension and signature permit them. In ten-dimensional Lorentzian spacetime it has sixteen real components off shell and eight physical massless spin-one-half polarizations.

For Grassmann-odd spinors in two dimensions with $\bar{\psi }={\psi }^{T}C$, $C^T=-C$ and $({\gamma }^{\mu }{)}^{T}C=-C{\gamma }^{\mu }$, moving components past each other gives $\bar{\chi }ϵ=\overline{ϵ}\chi$ and $\bar{\chi }{\gamma }^{\mu }{\gamma }^{\nu }ϵ=\overline{ϵ}{\gamma }^{\nu }{\gamma }^{\mu }\chi$. The transpose of a two-gamma product reverses its order; the Grassmann sign and the antisymmetry of $C$ cancel. For $\delta \psi =B{\gamma }^{\mu }{\partial }_{\mu }Xϵ$, this also gives $\delta \bar{\psi }=-B\overline{ϵ}{\gamma }^{\mu }{\partial }_{\mu }X$. These identities fix the boundary variation in worldsheet supersymmetry; commuting spinors would not obey the same interchange rule.

A Majorana mass term pairs a Weyl spinor field with itself, schematically ${\mathcal{L}}_m=-\frac{1}{2}m\psi \psi +h.c.$ with the spinor indices contracted. Under the continuous phase rotation $\psi \mapsto e^{i\alpha }\psi$, the bilinear gains $e^{2i\alpha }$, so a nonzero fixed mass breaks that continuous number symmetry.

Gauge invariance requires the contracted bilinear to be a gauge singlet, not every component of the field to be a singlet. A suitable real representation, including the Adjoint representation, can admit an invariant Majorana mass term; an adjoint gaugino is an example. A single field with nonzero conserved electric charge cannot have such a term, because its pair carries twice that electric charge.^[ref]

A real symmetric one-family Dirac-Majorana mass matrix can have a negative algebraic eigenvalue. A rephasing of the corresponding Weyl field puts its physical rest mass at the absolute value. Relative Majorana phases can still affect coherent lepton-number-violating amplitudes.

For anticommuting components and an antisymmetric numerical matrix $A$, $\delta ({\psi }^{T}A\psi )=2\delta {\psi }^{T}A\psi$: move the second varied field past the first and use $A^T=-A$. Applying this to $C^{-1}$ and to $C$ cancels the factor $1/2$ in $\mathcal{L}=\bar{\psi }i/\partial \psi +\frac{1}{2}(m{\psi }^T{C}^{-1}\psi -m^{\ast }\bar{\psi }C{\bar{\psi }}^T)$. Varying the Dirac adjoint gives the first displayed equation. Integration by parts in the spinor variation gives $i{\gamma }^{\mu T}{\partial }_{\mu }{\bar{\psi }}^T+m{C}^{-1}\psi =0$; multiplication by $C$ gives the second. Squaring the coupled equations yields $(\square +|m{|}^2)\psi =0$, so the physical Majorana fermion mass is $|m|$.