Gauge quantization for spin-32 fields

The free massless Rarita-Schwinger equation and a recently constructed interacting field theory known as supergravity are invariant under fermionic gauge transformations. Gauge field quantization techniques are applied in both cases. For the free field the Faddeev-Popov ansatz for the generating functional is justified by showing that it is equivalent to canonical quantization in a particular gauge. Propagators are obtained in several gauges and are shown to be ghost-free and causal. For supergravity the Faddeev-Popov ansatz is presented and the gauge fixing and determinant terms are discussed in detail in a Lorentz covariant gauge. The Slavnov-Taylor identity is obtained. It is argued that supergravity theory is free from the difficulty of acausal wave propagation of the type found by Velo and Zwanziger and that pole residues in tree approximation S-matrix elements are positive as required by unitarity.