Paper detail

Dirac-Kahler equations on curved spacetimes

A Lagrangian theory giving rise to a version of the Dirac-Kahler equations on curved backgrounds is considered. The principal pieces are the general fields which have values in the algebra of the Dirac matrices and satisfy a Dirac-type equation. Their components are scalar, pseudo-scalar, vector, axial-vector fields and fields strength which satisfy an irreducible systems of first-order Dirac-Kahler equations having remarkable gauge and duality properties similar to those of the flat case. The vector and axial-vector fields are the physical potentials giving rise to the field strength while the scalar fields play an auxiliary role and can be eliminated by fixing a suitable gauge. The chiral components of the field strength are either self-dual or anti self-dual with respect to the Hodge duality.