Mass Generating Antisymmetric Tensor Field Theories

Abstract

We study a set of theories built on a ranked sequence of antisymmetric tensor fields in D dimensional space-time. These linear theories exhibit gauge invariances that are analogous to the local gauge invariance of a massless vector (Maxwell) field. By appropriate arrangements of pairs of sequentially ranked interacting fields in each member of a series of action functionals, we produce a sequence of corresponding Higgs mechanism generalizations. Therefore, mass arises in one field of each pair at the expense of the independent existence of the other. The length of the sequence is determined by D.