Gauge invariant formulation of massive totally symmetric fermionic fields in (A)dS space

Massive arbitrary spin totally symmetric free fermionic fields propagating in d-dimensional (anti-)de Sitter space-time are investigated. Gauge invariant action and the corresponding gauge transformations for such fields are proposed. The results are formulated in terms of various mass parameters used in the literature as well as the lowest eigenvalues of the energy operator. We apply our results to a study of partial masslessness of fermionic fields in (A)dS(d), and in the case of d = 4 confirm the conjecture made in the earlier literature. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.