Continuous-Spin Particles, On Shell

We study on-shell scattering amplitudes for continuous-spin particles. Poincar\'e invariance, little-group $ISO(2)$ covariance, analyticity, and on-shell factorization (unitarity) impose stringent conditions on these amplitudes. We solve them by realizing a non-trivial representation for all little-group generators on the space of functions of bi-spinors. The three-point amplitudes are uniquely determined by matching their high-energy limit to that of definite-helicity (ordinary) massless particles. Four-point amplitudes are then bootstrapped using consistency conditions, allowing us to analyze the theory in a very transparent way, without relying on any off-shell Lagrangian formulation. We present several examples that highlight the main features of the resulting scattering amplitudes. Finally, we explore under which conditions it is possible to relax some assumptions, such as strict on-shell factorization, analyticity, or others. We show that continuous-spin particle dynamics may approximate gravity and electromagnetism in a loose version of $S$-matrix principles.
Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures