The Inverse Variational Problem for Autoparallels

Abstract

We study the problem of the existence of a local quantum scalar field theory in a general affine metric space that in the semiclassical approximation would lead to the autoparallel motion of wave packets, thus providing a deviation of the spinless particle trajectory from the geodesics in the presence of torsion. The problem is shown to be equivalent to the inverse problem of the calculus of variations for the autoparallel motion with additional conditions that the action (if it exists) has to be invariant under time reparametrizations and general coordinate transformations, while depending analytically on the torsion tensor. The problem is proved to have no solution for a generic torsion in four-dimensional spacetime. A solution exists only if the contracted torsion tensor is a gradient of a scalar field. The corresponding field theory describes coupling of matter to the dilaton field.