Reflections on Noether's second theorem and the energy-momentum tensor

Abstract: Through symmetry of the action under global spacetime translations, Noether's first theorem infamously entails an energy-momentum tensor (EMT) that is neither symmetric nor gauge-invariant. In a prior work [Phys. Rev. D 106, 125012 (2022)], I had obtained a symmetric and gauge-invariant EMT by using Noether's second theorem instead, with local spacetime translations as the symmetry group. However, the derivation therein was flawed, containing a faulty assumption about the transformation rule for spinor fields. In this work, I revisit the derivation of [Phys. Rev. D 106, 125012 (2022)], both correcting the faulty step and simplifying the derivation for broader accessibility. The end result is an EMT for quantum chromodynamics that is gauge-invariant, but not symmetric.