Torsion axial vector and Yvon-Takabayashi angle: zitterbewegung, chirality and all that

• Main Authors: Luca Fabbri, Roldão da Rocha
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2018-03-01
• Series: European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5706-3

Abstract We consider propagating torsion as a completion of gravitation in order to describe the dynamics of curved-twisted space-times filled with Dirac spinorial fields; we discuss interesting relationships of the torsion axial vector and the curvature tensor with the Yvon-Takabayashi angle and the module of the spinor field, that is the two degrees of freedom of the spinor field itself: in particular, we shall discuss in what way the torsion axial vector could be seen as the potential of a specific interaction of the Yvon-Takabayashi angle, and therefore as a force between the two chiral projections of the spinor field itself. Chiral interactions of the components of a spinor may render effects of zitterbewegung, as well as effective mass terms and other related features: we shall briefly sketch some of the analogies and differences with the similar but not identical situation given by the Yukawa interaction occurring in the Higgs sector of the standard model. We will provide some overall considerations about general consequences for contemporary physics, consequences that have never been discussed before, so far as we are aware, in the present physics literature.