Spin and New Physical Field

We discuss the theoretical basis for the search of the possible experimental manifestations of the torsion field at low energies. First, the quantum field theory in an external gravitational field with torsion is reviewed. The renormalizability requires the nonminimal interaction of torsion with spinor and scalar (Higgs) fields. The Pauli-like equation contains new torsion-dependent terms which have a different structure as compared with the standard electromagnetic ones. The...

A unified description of all interactions could be based on a higher-dimensional theory involving only spinor fields. The metric arises as a composite object and the gravitational field equations contain torsion-corrections as compared to Einstein gravity. Lorentz symmetry in spinor space is only global, implying new goldstone-boson-like gravitational particles beyond the graviton. However, the Schwarzschild and Friedman solutions are unaffected at one loop order. Our general...

Possible geometric frameworks for a unified theory of gravity and electromagnetism are investigated: General relativity is enlarged by allowing for an arbitrary complex linear connection and by constructing an extended spinor derivative based on the complex connection. Thereby the spacetime torsion not only is coupled to the spin of fermions and causes a four-fermion contact interaction, but the non-metric vector-part of torsion is also related to the electromagnetic potentia...

We consider a geometric approach to field theory in which torsion is present beside gravity and also electrodynamics for the matter field equations, and we develop the consequences of the torsion-spin coupling for the spinor fields; we show that these interactions have the structure of the weak interactions acting among leptons: we discuss the implications for the standard model of fundamental interactions of elementary fields in the perspective of the foundations of unificat...

A hypothesis of general relativity is that spacetime torsion vanishes identically. This assumption has no empirical support; in fact, a nonvanishing torsion is compatible with all the experimental tests of general relativity. The first part of this essay specifies the framework that is suitable to test the vanishing-torsion hypothesis, and an interesting relation with the gravitational degrees of freedom is suggested. In the second part, some original empirical tests are prop...

In this work we present the general differential geometry of a background in which the space-time has both torsion and curvature with internal symmetries being described by gauge fields, and that is equipped to couple spinorial matter fields having spin and energy as well as gauge currents: torsion will turn out to be equivalent to an axial-vector massive Proca field and because the spinor can be decomposed in its two chiral projections, torsion can be thought as the mediator...

According to the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, curvature and torsion are two equivalent ways of describing the same gravitational field. Despite equivalent, however, they act differently: whereas curvature yields a geometric description, in which the concept of gravitational force is absent, torsion acts as a true gravitational force, quite similar to the Lorentz force of electrodynamics. As a consequence, the right-hand side of a spinless-particle equation o...

We consider axial torsion fields which appear in higher derivative quantum gravity. It is shown, in general, that the torsion field possesses states with two spins, one and zero, with different masses. The first-order formulation of torsion fields is performed. Projection operators extracting pure spin and mass states are given. We obtain the Lagrangian in the framework of the first order formalism and energy-momentum tensor. The effective interaction of torsion fields with e...

One of the reasons why Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble theory --- which includes torsion due to the intrinsic spin of matter --- is not widely accepted as a viable theory of gravity, is the lack of any experimental evidence for the gravitational torsion. But at the heart of all matter are elementary fermions, which are mathematically described as spinors, and can be viewed as defects in spacetime associated with torsion. Therefore, in this essay we argue that the existence of m...

The general covariance principle, seen as an active version of the principle of equivalence, is used to study the gravitational coupling prescription in the presence of curvature and torsion. It is concluded that the coupling prescription determined by this principle is always equivalent with the corresponding prescription of general relativity. An application to the case of a Dirac spinor is made.