A Lagrangian with Higher Derivatives for Arbitrary Spin Fields

Abstract

A Lagrangian that generalizes the Dirac spin t Lagrangian is given. This contains up to 2jth order derivatives for spin j, but can be readily quantized for free fields. Noether's theorem is generalized and the results are shown to conform with other known quantization procedures for arbitrary spin particles. Use of the higher derivative Lagrangian overcomes some of the difficulties encountered by others in rigorously deriving a covariant Feynman propagator.