We propose an electric-magnetic symmetry group in non-abelian gauge theory, which we call the skeleton group. We work in the context of non-abelian unbroken gauge symmetry, and provide evidence for our proposal by relating the representation theory of the skeleton group to the labelling and fusion rules of charge sectors. We show that the labels of electric, magnetic and dyonic sectors in non-abelian Yang-Mills theory can be interpreted in terms of irreducible representations of the skeleton group. Decomposing tensor products of these representations thus gives a set of fusion rules which contain information about the full fusion rules of these charge sectors. We demonstrate consistency of the skeleton's fusion rules with the known fusion rules of the purely electric and purely magnetic magnetic sectors, and extract new predictions for the fusion rules of dyonic sectors in particular cases. We also implement S-duality and show that the fusion rules obtained from the skeleton group commute with S-duality.
Non-Abelian strings are considered in {\em non}-supersymmetric theories with fermions in various appropriate representations of the gauge group U($N$). We derive the electric charge quantization conditions and the index theorems counting fermion zero modes in the string background both for the left-handed and right-handed fermions. In both cases, we observe a non-trivial $N$ dependence.
Electric-magnetic dualities are equivalence between strong and weak coupling constants. A standard example is the exchange of electric and magnetic fields in an abelian gauge theory. We show three methods to perform electric-magnetic dualities in the case of the non-commutative $U(1)$ gauge theory. The first method is to use covariant field strengths to be the electric and magnetic fields. We find an invariant form of an equation of motion after performing the electric-magnetic duality. The second method is to use the Seiberg-Witten map to rewrite the non-commutative $U(1)$ gauge theory in ter…
We present electric-magnetic (Hodge) duality formulation for non-Abelian gauge groups with N=1 supersymmetry in 3+1 (4D) dimensions. Our system consists of three multiplets: (i) A super-Yang-Mills vector multiplet (YMVM) $(A_μ^I, λ^I)$, (ii) a dual vector multiplet (DVM) $(B_μ^I, χ^I)$, and (iii) an unphysical tensor multiplet (TM) $(C_{μν}{}^I, ρ^I, φ^I)$, with the index I for adjoint representation. The multiplets YMVM and DVM are dual to each other like: $G_{μν}{}^I = (1/2) ε_{μν}{}^{ρσ} F_{ρσ}{}^I$. The TM is unphysical, but still plays an important role for establishing the total consiste…
We study a model of massive photons with a parity invariant and non-local mass term. We identify a discrete symmetry of the classical equations of motion and show that this symmetry can be thought of as an electric-magnetic duality valid only in the presence of a non-zero photon mass. We explore this duality and discuss some features of the theory. We define notions of electric and magnetic charge that can be computed in any spatial domain as a volume integral of a density. These integrals can be transformed into integrals on the boundary. For instance, the electric charge is given by the sum …
We study the stability of fluctuations around a homogeneous non-Abelian electric field background that is of a form that is protected from Schwinger pair production. Our analysis identifies the unstable modes and we find a limiting set of parameters for which there are no instabilities. We discuss potential implications of our analysis for confining strings in non-Abelian gauge theories.
Electric fields in QED are known to discharge due to Schwinger pair production of charged particles. Corresponding electric fields in non-Abelian theory are known to discharge due to the production of gluons. Yet electric flux tubes in QCD ought to be stable to the production of charged gluons as they confine quarks. We resolve this conundrum by finding electric field configurations in pure non-Abelian gauge theory in which the Schwinger process is absent and the electric field is protected against quantum dissipation. We comment on the implications for QCD flux tubes.
We compute the partition function of four-dimensional abelian gauge theory on a general four-torus T4 with flat metric using Dirac quantization. In addition to an SL(4, Z) symmetry, it possesses SL(2,Z) symmetry that is electromagnetic S-duality. We show explicitly how this SL(2, Z) S-duality of the 4d abelian gauge theory has its origin in symmetries of the 6d (2,0) tensor theory, by computing the partition function of a single fivebrane compactified on T2 x T4, which has SL(2,Z) x SL(4,Z) symmetry. If we identify the couplings of the abelian gauge theory τ= {θ\over 2π} + i{4π\over e^2} with …
We study the Schwinger process in a uniform non-Abelian electric field using a dynamical approach in which we evolve an initial quantum state for gluonic excitations. We evaluate the spectral energy density and number density in the excitations as functions of time. The total energy density has an ultraviolet divergence which we argue gets tamed due to asymptotic freedom, leading to $g^4E^4t^4$ growth, where $g$ is the coupling and $E$ the electric field strength. We also find an infrared divergence in the number density of excitations whose resolution requires an effect such as confinement.
Confining Properties of Abelian(-Projected) Theories
导出了阿贝尔投影SU（2）-和SU（3）-胶子动力学的磁流表示。除二次项外，所得到的有效作用量还包含了这些电流与四维电弦世界面或三维电涡旋线的相互作用。其次，我们证明了3D紧致QED是具有外磁单极子的3D Abel Higgs模型的小规范玻色子质量极限，并给出了约束弦论作为量子密度积分的物理解释。最后，我们导出了三维紧致QED弱场极限下的双局域场强度关联式，结果与随机真空模型预言的结果一致。
We introduce a new term into the Dirac equation based on the Lorentz symmetry violation background in order to make a theoretical description of the relativistic quantum dynamics of a spin-half neutral particle, where the wave function of the neutral particle acquires a relativistic Abelian quantum phase given by the interaction between a fixed time-like 4-vector background and crossed electric and magnetic fields, which is analogous to the geometric phase obtained by Wei \textit{et al} [H. Wei, R. Han and X. Wei, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{75}, 2071 (1995)] for a spinless neutral particle with …
There exists a formulation of the Maxwell theory in terms of two vector potentials, one electric and one magnetic. The action is then manifestly invariant under electric-magnetic duality transformations, which are rotations in the two-dimensional internal space of the two potentials, and local. We ask the question: can duality be gauged? The only known and battled-tested method of accomplishing the gauging is the Noether procedure. In its decanted form, it amounts to turn on the coupling by deforming the abelian gauge group of the free theory, out of whose curvatures the action is built, into …
The variety of consistent "gauging" deformations of supergravity theories in four dimensions depends on the choice of Lagrangian formulation. One important goal is to get the most general deformations without making hidden assumptions. Ignoring supersymmetry we consider in this paper $n_v$ abelian vector potentials in four spacetime dimensions with non-minimal kinetic coupling to $n_s$ uncharged (possibly nonlinear) scalar fields. As in the case of extended supergravities, one model may possess different formulations related by $Sp(2n_v,\mathbb{R})$. The symplectic group mixes its electric and…
We investigate the flux-tube joining two equal and opposite electric charges using the dual Ginzburg-Landau model of superconductivity. The model is supplemented with an additional scalar field carrying a non-Abelian global symmetry, broken in the vortex cores. The presence of orientational moduli makes the flux tube non-Abelian. We perform a detailed study of the low energy theory of this soliton. We also analyze the solution representing superconducting droplets in the presence of the monopole anti - monopole pair.
General Lagrangians are constructed for N=2 conformal supergravity theories in four space-time dimensions involving gauge groups with abelian and/or non-abelian electric and magnetic charges. The charges are encoded in the gauge group embedding tensor. The scalar potential induced by the gauge interactions is quadratic in this tensor, and, when the embedding tensor is treated as a spurionic quantity, it is formally covariant with respect to electric/magnetic duality. This work establishes a general framework for studying any deformation induced by gauge interactions of matter-coupled N=2 super…
In the Abelian Higgs model electric (and magnetic) fields of external charges (and currents) are screened by the scalar field. In this contribution, complementing recent investigations of Ishihara and Ogawa, we present a detailed investigation of charge screening using a perturbative approach with the charge strength as an expansion parameter. It is shown how perfect global and remarkably good local screening can be derived from Gauss' theorem, and the asymptotic form of the fields far from the sources. The perturbative results are shown to compare favourably to the numerical ones.
We investigate the Schwinger effect for the gauge bosons in an unbroken non-Abelian gauge theory (e.g. the gluons of QCD). We consider both constant "color electric" fields and "color magnetic" fields as backgrounds. As in the Abelian Schwinger effect we find there is production of "gluons" for the color electric field, but no particle production for the color magnetic field case. Since the non-Abelian gauge bosons are massless there is no exponential suppression of particle production due to the mass of the electron/positron that one finds in the Abelian Schwinger effect. Despite the lack of …
We suggest that dark matter may be partially constituted by a dilute 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles gas. We reach this conclusion by using the Georgi-Glashow model coupled to a dual kinetic mixing term $ F{\tilde {\cal G}}$ where $F$ is the electromagnetic field and ${\cal G}$ the 't Hooft tensor. We show that these monopoles carry both (Maxwell) electric and (Georgi-Glashow) magnetic charges and the electric charge quantization condition is modified in terms of a dimensionless real parameter. This parameter could be determined from milli-charged particle experiments.
In Field theories with simple or semi-simple unitary, local or global symmetries, the electric charge is related to a global one. This is the case also in electroweak gauge theories even before the spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), where these quantities are defined in order to expand the Lagrangian respecting the conservation laws after the breaking. So, the electric charge assignment within a given multiplet is done (in units of jej) considering only global symmetries, even though in general, the electric charge operator is a linear combination of the diagonal generators of the non-Abelia…
We study spherically symmetric solutions of an $SO(5)$ Chern-Simons--Yang-Mills-Higgs system in $3+1$ dimensions. The Chern-Simons densities are defined in terms of both Yang-Mills fields and a $5$-component isomultiplet Higgs. The $SO(3)\times{SO(2)}$ solutions are analysed in a systematic way, by employing numerical methods. These finite energy configurations possess both electric and magnetic global charges, differing radically, however, from Julia-Zee dyons. When two or more of these Chern-Simons densities are present in the Lagrangian, solutions with vanishing electric charge but nonvanis…
We construct finite mass, asymptotically flat black hole solutions in d=4 Einstein-Yang-Mills theory augmented with higher order curvature terms of the gauge field. They possess non-Abelian hair in addition to Coulomb electric charge, and, below some non-zero critical temperature, they are thermodynamically preferred over the Reissner-Nordstrom solution. Our results indicate the existence of hairy non-Abelian black holes which are stable under linear, spherically symmetric perturbations.
