The Signature Triality of Majorana-Weyl Spacetimes

Higher dimensional Majorana-Weyl spacetimes present space-time dualities which are induced by the Spin(8) triality automorphisms. Different signature versions of theories such as 10-dimensional SYM's, superstrings, five-branes, F-theory, are shown to be interconnected via the S_3 permutation group. Bilinear and trilinear invariants under space-time triality are introduced and their possible relevance in building models possessing a space-versus-time exchange symmetry is discussed. Moreover the Cartan's ``vector/chiral spinor/antichiral spinor" triality of SO(8) and SO(4,4) is analyzed in detail and explicit formulas are produced in a Majorana-Weyl basis. This paper is the extended version of hep-th/9907148.Comment: 28 pages, LaTex. Extended version of hep-th/990714

Local Physical Coodinates from Symplectic Projector Method

The basic arguments underlying the symplectic projector method are presented. By this method, local free coordinates on the constrait surface can be obtained for a broader class of constrained systems. Some interesting examples are analyzed.Comment: 8 page

Torsion and Gravitation: A new view

According to the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity, curvature and torsion are two equivalent ways of describing the same gravitational field. Despite equivalent, however, they act differently: whereas curvature yields a geometric description, in which the concept of gravitational force is absent, torsion acts as a true gravitational force, quite similar to the Lorentz force of electrodynamics. As a consequence, the right-hand side of a spinless-particle equation of motion (which would represent a gravitational force) is always zero in the geometric description, but not in the teleparallel case. This means essentially that the gravitational coupling prescription can be minimal only in the geometric case. Relying on this property, a new gravitational coupling prescription in the presence of curvature and torsion is proposed. It is constructed in such a way to preserve the equivalence between curvature and torsion, and its basic property is to be equivalent with the usual coupling prescription of general relativity. According to this view, no new physics is connected with torsion, which appears as a mere alternative to curvature in the description of gravitation. An application of this formulation to the equations of motion of both a spinless and a spinning particle is madeComment: To appear on IJMP

Unconstrained Variables of Non-Commutative Open Strings

The boundary conditions of the bosonic string theory in non-zero $B$-field background are equivalent to the second class constraints of a discretized version of the theory. By projecting the original canonical coordinates onto the constraint surface we derive a set of coordinates of string that are unconstrained.These coordinates represent a natural framework for the quantization of the theory.Comment: 8 pages, LATeX fil

Teleparallel origin of the Fierz picture for spin-2 particle

A new approach to the description of spin-2 particle in flat and curved spacetime is developed on the basis of the teleparallel gravity theory. We show that such an approach is in fact a true and natural framework for the Fierz representation proposed recently by Novello and Neves. More specifically, we demonstrate how the teleparallel theory fixes uniquely the structure of the Fierz tensor, discover the transparent origin of the gauge symmetry of the spin 2 model, and derive the linearized Einstein operator from the fundamental identity of the teleparallel gravity. In order to cope with the consistency problem on the curved spacetime, similarly to the usual Riemannian approach, one needs to include the non-minimal (torsion dependent) coupling terms.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex4, no figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.