Electromagnetic helicity flux operators in higher dimensions

Abstract

The helicity flux operator is a fascinating quantity that characterizes the angular distribution of the helicity of radiative photons or gravitons and it has many interesting physical consequences. In this paper, we construct the electromagnetic helicity flux operators which form a non-Abelian group in general dimensions, among which the minimal helicity flux operators form the massless representation of the little group, a finite spin unitary irreducible representation of the Poincar\'e group. As in four dimensions, they generate an extended angle-dependent transformation on the Carrollian manifold. Interestingly, there is no known corresponding bulk duality transformation in general dimensions. However, we can construct a topological Chern-Simons term that evaluates the minimal helicity flux operators at $\mathcal{I}^+$.