Spinning Fields in Lorentzian AdS

Abstract

We construct the higher spin wave functions in the embedding space of anti-de Sitter Lorentzian spacetime. These wave functions are built from a primary wave functions that has a simple structure expressed in terms of the special conformal generator vector fields in AdS. We compute the eigenvalue of the quadratic Casimir for the symmetric traceless states, and show explicitly that these satisfy the higher spin wave equation. We also demonstrate that these wave functions have the right structure in the flat space limit for massive higher spin fields, and can be used to construct $in$ and $out$ states for scattering processes. Spinning states that become massless in the flat limit are extremely subtle. The problem can be isolated to longitudinal polarizations.