On the meaning of the minimal Wess-Zumino term

Abstract

The physical meaning of the recently proposed minimal Wess-Zumino (MWZ) term is discussed. It is shown that the only relativistically acceptable MWZ corresponds to a gauged Floreanini-Jackiw chiral boson. This leads to the conclusion that the very mechanism in action is that of closing families like it happens in the standard model, and not that of the WZ term, in the spirit of Faddeev-Shatashvilli.