Massless DKP fields in Riemann–Cartan spacetimes

Abstract

We study massless Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau (DKP) fields in the context of Einstein-Cartan gravitation theory. In the case of an identically vanishing torsion (Riemannian space-times) we show that there exists local gauge symmetries which reproduce the usual gauge symmetries for the massless scalar and electromagnetic fields. On the other hand, similarly to what happens with the Maxwell theory, a non-vanishing torsion breaks the usual U(1) local gauge symmetry of the electromagnetic field.