Sergey Fedoruk

We give a brief overview of the BRST approach to the gauge-invariant Lagrangian formulation for free massive higher-spin bosonic fields, focusing on two specific aspects. First, the theory is considered in four-dimensional flat space in terms of spin-tensor fields with two-component undotted and dotted indices. This leads to a significant simplification of the whole approach in comparison with the one where the fields with vector indices were used, since now there is no need to introduce a constraint responsible for the traces of the fields into the BRST charge. Second, we develop an extremely simple and clear procedure to eliminate all the auxiliary fields and prove that the BRST equations of motion identically reproduce the basic conditions for irreducible representations of the Poincáre group with a given mass and spin. Similar to the massless theory, the final Lagrangian for massive higher-spin fields is formulated in triplet form. The BRST formulation leads to a system of fields that are clearly subdivided into the basic spin s field, Zinoviev-like auxiliary fields, Singh–Hagen-like auxiliary fields, and special BRST auxiliary fields. The auxiliary fields can be partially eliminated by gauge fixing and/or using the equations of motion. This allows one to obtain formally different (with different numbers of auxiliary fields) but equivalent Lagrangian formulations.

The paper is dedicated to the blessed memory of Professor Vladislav Gavrilovich Bagrov, an outstanding Russian scientist in the area of theoretical and mathematical physics. He had a great influence on the formation of the scientific interests dozens of scientists in Tomsk and Russia as a whole. Two of the authors of this paper (I.L.B and V.A.K) are to one degree or another grateful to Professor V.G. Bagrov for comprehensive support in the initial period of their scientific career. Two other authors (S.A.F. and A.P.I.) are familiar with and use the work of scientists from the Tomsk School of Theoretical Physics, founded by Professor V.G. Bagrov. The paper is devoted to certain aspects of the higher-spin field theory, which were mainly initiated and continued during of I.L.B and V.A.K work in Tomsk. We demonstrate in details the simplicity and clearity of the Lagrangian formulation for free four-dimensional massless higher-spin fields within the universal BRST approach, while describing these fields in terms of two-component spin-tensors.