Published November 15, 1995 | Version v1
Journal article

Non-Abelian Yang-Mills analogue of classical electromagnetic duality

  • 1. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX (United Kingdom)
  • 2. Department of Theoretical Physics, Oxford University, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP (United Kingdom)
  • 3. Mathematical Institute, Oxford University, 24-29 St. Giles', Oxford, OX1 3LB (United Kingdom)

Description

The classic question of non-Abelian Yang-Mills analogue to electromagnetic duality is examined here in a minimalist fashion at the strictly four-dimensional, classical field, and point charge level. A generalization of the Abelian Hodge star duality is found which, though not yet known to give dual symmetry, reproduces analogues to many dual properties of the Abelian theory. For example, there is a dual potential, but it is a two-indexed tensor Tμν of the Freedman-Townsend-type. Though not itself functioning as such, Tμν gives rise to a dual parallel transport Aμ for the phase of the wave function of the color magnetic charge, this last being a monopole of the Yang-Mills field but a source of the dual field. The standard color (electric) charge itself is found to be a monpole of Aμ. At the same time, the gauge symmetry is found doubled from say SU(N) to SU(N)xSU(N). A novel feature is that all equations of motion, including the standard Yang-Mills and Wong equations, are here derived from a ''universal'' principle, namely, the Wu-Yang criterion for monpoles, where interactions arise purely as a consequence of the topological definition of the monopole charge. The technique used is the loop space formulation of Polyakov

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. D, Particles Fields
Journal Volume
52
Journal Issue
10
Journal Page Range
p. 6134-6156.
ISSN
0556-2821
CODEN
PRVDAQ