On the emergent dynamics of fermions in curved spacetime

Institute for Theoretical Physics, Center for Extreme Matter and Emergent Phenomena, Utrecht University Leuvenlaan 4, 3584 CE Utrecht, The Netherlands

Received: 11 March 2016
Accepted: 5 June 2016

Abstract

Relativistic spin-(1/2) particles in curved spacetime are naturally described by Dirac theory, which is a dynamical and Lorentz-invariant field theory. In this work, we propose a non-dynamical fermion theory in 3+1 dimensions dubbed spinor topological field theory, built in terms of a spinor field and a Cartan connection related to de Sitter group. We show that our model gives rise to the Dirac theory in curved spacetime when the local de Sitter gauge invariance of the model breaks down to the Lorentz gauge invariance, providing also a geometric origin to the fermion mass. Finally, we show that other gauge fields and suitable four-fermion interactions can be included in a straightforward way.