Geometrical approach to the proton spin decomposition

Abstract

We discuss in detail and from the geometrical point of view the issues of gauge invariance and Lorentz covariance raised by the approach proposed recently by Chen et al. to the proton spin decomposition. We show that the gauge invariance of this approach follows from a mechanism similar to the one used in the famous Stueckelberg trick. Stressing the fact that the Lorentz symmetry does not force the gauge potential to transform as a Lorentz four-vector, we show that the Chen et al. approach is Lorentz covariant provided that one uses the suitable Lorentz transformation law. We also make an attempt to summarize the present situation concerning the proton spin decomposition. We argue that the ongoing debates concern essentially the physical interpretation and are due to the plurality of the adopted pictures. We discuss these different pictures and propose a pragmatic point of view.Comment: 39 pages, 1 figure, updated version to appear in PRD (2013