Fermionic degeneracy and non-local contributions in flag-dipole spinors and mass dimension one fermions

Abstract

We construct a mass dimension one fermionic field associated with flag-dipole spinors. These spinors are related to Elko (flag-pole spinors) by a one-parameter matrix transformation $\mathcal{Z}(z)$ where $z$ is a complex number. The theory is non-local and non-covariant. While it is possible to obtain a Lorentz-invariant theory via $\tau$-deformation, we choose to study the effects of non-locality and non-covariance. Our motivation for doing so is explained. We show that a fermionic field with $|z|\neq1$ and $|z|=1$ are physically equivalent. But for fermionic fields with more than one value of $z$, their interactions are $z$-dependent thus introducing an additional fermionic degeneracy that is absent in the Lorentz-invariant theory. We study the fermionic self-interaction and the local $U(1)$ interaction. In the process, we obtained non-local contributions for fermionic self-interaction that have previously been neglected. For the local $U(1)$ theory, the interactions contain time derivatives that renders the interacting density non-commutative at space-like separation. We show that this problem can be resolved by working in the temporal gauge. This issue is also discussed in the context of gravity.