For Grassmann-odd four-dimensional Majorana spinors, choose and . Then is symmetric whereas 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.
Gamma trace of a vector-spinor Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
The gamma trace contracts the vector index of a Rarita-Schwinger field with a gamma matrix, producing an ordinary spinor. In the massive free theory it vanishes by the field equations. In the massless theory a gauge transformation changes it by , allowing a gamma-traceless gauge for propagating modes. Together with transversality this removes the unwanted spin-one-half sector.
Gravitino-induced torsion Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
With canonical Rarita-Schwinger field normalization, one convention gives the displayed torsion tensor. Its contorsion tensor is . The algebraic spin connection equation determines ; substituting it in the action produces four-fermion terms. This is an instance of Einstein-Cartan theory and is efficiently varied using the 1.5-order formalism. A rescaled gravitino changes the displayed coefficient.
Massless Rarita-Schwinger polarization count Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
Gauge equivalence permits gamma-trace gauge. The Rarita-Schwinger field equation then gives transversality and a massless Dirac equation for each component. For momentum along the third axis, residual gauge removes the temporal and longitudinal components. The remaining constraint is , with in the two-dimensional kernel of . Spinor helicity is paired with vector helicity of the same sign, leaving only . A Majorana spinor reality condition identifies antiparticles; a Dirac vector-spinor has separate antiparticle modes.
The Noether gauging procedure begins with a rigid symmetry parameter . Replacing it by leaves in the action variation a term proportional to . Introduce a gauge field whose variation contains and couple it to the Noether current to cancel that term. The new coupling produces further variations, so both the action and transformation laws are corrected successively in the coupling constant until local invariance is obtained. Covariant derivatives organize this iterative completion.
For the Wess–Zumino model, the parameter is a spinor and the current is the supercurrent. Its derivative part has the structure , up to the fixed Majorana spinor normalization and improvements. The gauge field is the spin- gravitino , with leading transformation . A coupling of to that current cancels the derivative of the local parameter. Since the commutator of two local supersymmetries includes a spacetime transformation, the vierbein and gravity must participate as well. This gives the Wess-Zumino chiral multiplet coupled to supergravity.
The terms displayed in the final expression have the following distinct roles:
The last two interactions are part of the higher-order local supersymmetry completion. They can be organized through the composite Kähler connection in the fermion derivatives, or derived by eliminating the corresponding supergravity auxiliary connection. Matter fermions and gravitini carry the appropriate chiral Kähler weights, fixing the relative current couplings. They are not new adjustable Yukawa interactions. In reading this organization, one must not include the composite connection in and then count its separately displayed current terms a second time.
Finally the spin connection itself acquires gravitino-induced torsion and matter spin-current contributions. Eliminating this algebraic connection, or solving for auxiliary fields, can make further fermion contact terms implicit in the chosen covariant derivatives and component convention. The key mechanism is current coupling at first order, followed by the covariant and higher-order terms required by local supersymmetry, rather than merely changing ordinary derivatives in the original matter Lagrangian.
Use four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime with and . The Clifford algebra duality identity makes the displayed epsilon-form equation equivalent, up to a nonzero convention-dependent phase, to
This is the Euler-Lagrange equation of the first-order Rarita-Schwinger field action , with the overall phase adjusted to the chosen Majorana convention. Varying the Majorana spinor action accounts for both occurrences of the field and cancels the one-half normalization.
A vector times a spinor contains spin- and unwanted spin- pieces, so the tensor type alone does not establish the physical spin. The field equation has gauge invariance
since the two derivatives contract an antisymmetric pair of gamma indices. Put and . Gamma matrix multiplication gives
Hence . Use the gauge transformation, under which , to impose . The equations then imply
with residual gauge freedom satisfying .
For a plane wave with nonzero momentum satisfying the null condition along the third axis, this residual freedom sets the temporal component to zero. Transversality then removes the longitudinal component, leaving the tensor product of two transverse vector polarizations with the two massless spinor helicities. The possible total helicities are and . The gamma trace is a rotation-covariant map to a spinor, which has only helicities . It therefore vanishes on the aligned combinations and removes the two mixed combinations. Equivalently, the transverse gamma trace condition has rank two on the four remaining complex positive-frequency coefficients. The massless Rarita-Schwinger polarization count is thus
The Majorana spinor reality condition relates negative-frequency coefficients to their conjugates; it does not introduce a separate antiparticle multiplet. A complex vector-spinor would also have independent antiparticle states.
A nonzero standard Rarita-Schwinger field mass term destroys the massless gauge invariance and adds the two longitudinal helicities. To see the constraints explicitly, choose its momentum-space sign so the equation is
Contracting with gives . Its gamma trace then gives . For these imply , and the remaining Dirac equation is . In the rest frame . Three spatial vector components times two positive-energy spinor components give six coefficients, and the gamma trace removes two, leaving the irreducible spin- representation. Therefore
In supergravity a consistent spontaneous mass generation is the super-Higgs mechanism, which supplies those extra states from the goldstino.
The massless graviton also has two physical helicities, so the graviton and gravitino already match on shell. The reason for auxiliary fields is the off-shell component count of minimal supergravity mismatch, not a mismatch of these physical states. After removing gauge functions but before using field equations, a metric has independent bosonic components, while a Majorana vector-spinor has fermionic components. In vierbein language the same bosonic count is , subtracting local Lorentz and diffeomorphism gauges. Old-minimal supergravity adds a complex scalar and a real vector, supplying six real nonpropagating bosonic components. This gives off-shell components and closure without imposing equations of motion. Their algebraic elimination leaves the physical graviton–gravitino spectrum unchanged.
The Noether gauging procedure starts by allowing a constant symmetry parameter to depend on position. For an internal symmetry written as , integration by parts identifies the Noether current:
up to a boundary term. Introduce a gauge field and add , with the inhomogeneous gauge transformation . This cancels the displayed variation. The current coupling has its own variation, so one iterates: add the needed higher-order interactions and corrections to the gauge transformations, and require closure of the local symmetry algebra. For an ordinary gauge theory, this reorganizes derivatives into gauge covariant derivatives and fixes the nonlinear gauge field strength. Gauging is therefore more than replacing a constant parameter by a function.
For rigid supersymmetry, the corresponding Noether current is the spinor-valued supercurrent . A local Majorana spinor parameter gives a variation proportional to . A gravitino , with an inhomogeneous transformation , cancels it through a coupling proportional to . The commutator of two rigid supersymmetry transformations is a translation. With local parameters, the translation parameter becomes position dependent, so the completion must also gauge translations: it introduces the vierbein, diffeomorphism invariance of general relativity, and local Lorentz transformations. The gravitino and graviton thus belong to the same supergravity multiplet.
For pure minimal four-dimensional supergravity, start with the free massless Fierz-Pauli action and the free Rarita-Schwinger field kinetic term. The Noether gauging procedure replaces the former by the Einstein-Hilbert action and couples the latter to the vierbein and spin connection. In a canonical normalization the leading transformations can be written
An overall sign or phase changes with the curvature and Majorana spinor conventions, but the relative normalization must be used consistently. To see why these terms fit together, first work to quadratic order in fermions, so the spin connection is torsion free. Varying the Rarita-Schwinger field kinetic term under produces an antisymmetric double spinor covariant derivative. The spinor curvature identity and the Einstein tensor contraction of spin curvature give, in the matching curvature convention,
The resulting Einstein tensor term cancels the variation of the Einstein-Hilbert action under . This is the essential first nontrivial cancellation in the construction.
At higher fermion order, the variations of the vierbein and spin connection produce further terms. Treating the spin connection as independent makes its Euler-Lagrange field equation algebraic. Its solution is a gravitino-induced torsion connection. With and , a conventional canonical normalization gives
Equivalently, with , the torsion tensor obeys
The Majorana Grassmann bilinear interchange makes the right-hand side antisymmetric in . Eliminating the spin connection generates the four-fermion completion. In the 1.5-order formalism one substitutes its solution but varies the other fields holding the connection fixed: the omitted chain-rule term is . The remaining cubic fermion variations cancel by the Clifford algebra and Fierz rearrangements. This produces the displayed supergravity action in its compact connection-dependent form. Calling this formulation on shell means that no independent auxiliary fields have been retained and that closure of the supersymmetry algebra uses the propagating Euler-Lagrange field equations; it does not mean that action invariance is obtained only by setting every variation to zero on a solution.
In the antisymmetrized kinetic term, is a spinor-valued one-form and the derivative is conventionally written
This is the Lorentz-covariant exterior-derivative convention for that term. If one instead uses the full affine covariant derivative of a vector-spinor, a coordinate-index connection is also present and the antisymmetrization must include its torsion tensor correction. The crucial physical distinction from pure metric general relativity is the spin connection contains gravitino-induced contorsion, rather than being the torsion-free Levi-Civita connection. It reduces to the ordinary spinor covariant derivative when the gravitino vanishes.
Use the Clifford algebra and unit-weight antisymmetrization. The duality identity between and three antisymmetrized gamma matrices turns the equation into
The overall nonzero factor in this identity depends on the orientation and convention and does not change its solutions. This Rarita-Schwinger field equation has the gauge symmetry
since . It is the free-field limit of local supersymmetry, so it is suitable for the gravitino.
To check which spin it propagates, put and . Expanding the three gamma matrices using the Clifford algebra gives
in four dimensions. Thus the Euler-Lagrange field equation requires . Under the gauge transformation, ; locally one may choose gamma-trace gauge fixing, , by solving . The Euler-Lagrange field equation then yields
These are the massless Dirac equation, transversality and gamma-trace constraints that remove the lower-spin part of a vector-spinor.
For a more explicit massless Rarita-Schwinger polarization count, take a positive-frequency plane wave with null momentum along the third axis, in signature . Transversality relates its temporal and longitudinal components. Residual gauge transformations with remove both. Write the surviving components as ; their gamma-trace condition reads , hence
The massless Dirac equation leaves two complex positive-frequency amplitudes in . If , , then is proportional to in the transverse vector index. With spatial rotation generators and , the vector has helicity and the Majorana spinor has helicity , giving total helicity . The Majorana spinor condition fixes the negative-frequency coefficients from these amplitudes. Therefore a massless gravitino has spin , with the two physical helicities . A complex vector-spinor would also have independent antiparticle modes.
The requested count is instead the off-shell component count of minimal supergravity, before imposing any Euler-Lagrange field equations. A four-dimensional Majorana spinor has four real components. Its vector index supplies four copies, and local supersymmetry supplies four real gauge functions:
One must not additionally subtract transversality and the massless Dirac equation in this count: those are on shell conditions. The gamma-trace gauge fixing already uses the same four gauge functions subtracted above. For the graviton, a symmetric metric tensor has ten real components, with four diffeomorphism gauge functions. Equivalently, a vierbein has sixteen real components, minus six local Lorentz transformation and four diffeomorphism functions:
The gravitino and graviton each have two propagating states on shell, but their off-shell counts disagree by six.
An auxiliary field has an algebraic Euler-Lagrange field equation and no propagating kinetic term. In old-minimal supergravity, a complex scalar contributes two real bosonic components and a real vector contributes four, so the bosonic count becomes , matching the gravitino. Their supersymmetry transformations also absorb the terms that would otherwise require the propagating Euler-Lagrange field equations to close the local algebra. Thus auxiliary fields allow off-shell supersymmetry closure and matching component counts without adding physical particles. Eliminating them recovers an on shell formulation.
Use signature , , and unit-weight antisymmetrized gamma products. The massless Rarita-Schwinger field has the gauge freedom
since the antisymmetric annihilates . This gauge freedom is essential to remove the lower-spin components of the vector-spinor.
Put . Contracting the field equation with and using gives
Expanding the original three-gamma product then reduces its equation to
A gauge transformation changes by . Locally solve to impose gamma-trace gauge. The two equations become
Applying again gives . Nonzero propagating Fourier modes therefore have : the physical modes are massless.
For the massless Rarita-Schwinger polarization count, choose a nonzero future null momentum . The remaining gauge parameters satisfy . Transversality gives , and this residual gauge removes , hence also , because itself satisfies . Only remain, with
The kernel of on four-component spinors has complex dimension two, so there are exactly two independent polarization amplitudes.
To identify their helicities, the spinor rotation generator about the third axis in this convention is . Its two eigenvalues on that kernel are . If is such an eigenvector, then . Its transverse vector polarization is consequently for or for . These carry vector helicity or , respectively. Adding the vector and spinor angular momenta leaves
The unwanted opposite-sign vector-spinor combinations, which would have helicity , violate the gamma-trace constraint. For the gravitino of simple supergravity, its Majorana spinor reality condition identifies the negative-frequency antiparticle modes, giving two propagating degrees of freedom. If one instead chooses a complex Dirac vector-spinor, its independent antiparticle sector doubles the particle-plus-antiparticle count; the equation alone does not impose a Majorana condition.
Work through terms quadratic in the fermions, with Grassmann-odd Majorana spinors and . At this order the spin connection can be taken torsion-free: eliminating its gravitino-induced torsion changes the action only at four-fermion order. The Christoffel term needed to turn the printed into a full vector-spinor covariant derivative drops out after contraction with , since the connection is symmetric in .
First establish the Einstein tensor contraction of spin curvature. Expanding the Clifford product and using the first Bianchi identity, its five-gamma and antisymmetric three-gamma curvature contributions vanish, leaving
Since , it follows that
The factor arises from antisymmetrizing the two derivatives, not from a choice of Einstein-Hilbert normalization.
For the Einstein-Hilbert action, the metric variation is
Variation with respect to the covariant metric, including the determinant variation and discarding the usual boundary divergence, gives
No gravitational field equation has been assumed here.
For the Rarita-Schwinger field action, the determinant, gamma-matrix and connection variations each multiply a term already quadratic in . Since is bilinear in , these contributions have four fermionic factors and are outside the requested order. Retain only the variations of the two explicit gravitino factors. The four-dimensional Majorana bilinear interchange gives for odd spinors. After integration by parts, the first gravitino variation is
where the last step swaps and reverses the three-gamma sign. It is exactly equal to the variation of the second gravitino factor. Therefore
The curvature contribution cancels pointwise. Thus
up to boundary terms and the omitted four-fermion-order variations. This directly proves the stated local supersymmetry invariance with its printed coefficients. At higher order, the torsion and quartic-fermion completion of minimal four-dimensional supergravity is needed; it cannot be inferred by dropping the terms indefinitely.
Use mostly-plus Lorentzian signature and , with antisymmetrized gamma products of unit weight. A Majorana spinor obeys a reality condition under charge conjugation:
A Weyl spinor instead has definite chirality,
A four-dimensional Majorana spinor has four real components, while a Weyl spinor has two complex components. Charge conjugation reverses chirality in this signature, so a nonzero spinor cannot satisfy both conditions simultaneously.
For the Dirac equation , the derivative term reverses chirality because anticommutes with every gamma matrix, whereas the mass term preserves it. Projecting a purely chiral spinor equation onto its two chiralities therefore gives both and . Thus a nonzero four-component Weyl spinor satisfying this uncoupled Dirac equation must be massless. A Majorana spinor contains conjugate opposite-chirality components and can have a nonzero mass. Its charge-conjugation reality condition identifies particle and antiparticle operators, so a Majorana particle is its own antiparticle. A Weyl field does not by itself impose that identification.
This does not forbid writing a Majorana mass term for a neutral two-component Weyl field: such a term couples the field to its conjugate, and the resulting four-component massive field is Majorana, not a purely chiral solution of the uncoupled Dirac equation.
For the Rarita-Schwinger field, set and . The antisymmetric kinetic operator is invariant under
because commuting derivatives contract to zero against . Expanding its gamma product gives
Gamma contraction gives , so the equation implies and .
For a Fourier mode with momentum , if the latter identity gives . The mode is proportional to and hence pure gauge. Every physical nonzero-momentum mode therefore has . For a null mode, choose an index with . The same equation makes an element of the image of , allowing a gauge choice with . The field equations then reduce to
Residual gauge transformations obey .
Take a null momentum in the third spatial direction. Residual gauge freedom and transversality remove the temporal and longitudinal vector components, leaving two transverse vector polarizations. Their helicities are , while on-shell spinor helicities are . The gamma-trace constraint removes the two combinations of total helicity and retains the aligned combinations of helicity . Explicitly, in a chiral representation the transverse gamma contractions use , which annihilate the correspondingly aligned spin states and act nontrivially on the opposite states. Thus a Majorana Rarita-Schwinger field has two physical massless polarizations. The Majorana assumption is the one relevant to simple supergravity; a complex vector-spinor has these helicities for its particle and independent antiparticle modes.
A consistent free massive deformation is the algebraic term
added to a kinetic term . Its equation is
For , divergence and gamma contraction give, respectively,
These imply the massive Rarita-Schwinger constraints and , and the remaining equation is . Squaring gives in the chosen signature. The gauge symmetry is lost. In the rest frame, transversality sets the temporal component to zero; three spatial vector components times two on-shell spinor states give six states, and gamma trace removes the two spin-one-half states. The result is four massive spin- states, with spin projections . In supergravity the additional longitudinal states can be supplied by the super-Higgs mechanism.