In this work we revisit the topological mass generation of 2-forms and establish a connection to the unique derivative coupling arising in the quartic Lagrangian of the systematic construction of massive $2-$form interactions, relating in this way BF theories to Galileon-like theories of 2-forms. In terms of a massless $1-$form $A$ and a massless $2-$form $B$, the topological term manifests itself as the interaction $B\wedge F$, where $F = {\rm d} A$ is the field strength of the $1-$form. Such an interaction leads to a mechanism of generation of mass, usually referred to as "topological generation of mass" in which the single degree of freedom propagated by the $2-$form is absorbed by the $1-$form, generating a massive mode for the $1-$form. Using the systematical construction in terms of the Levi-Civita tensor, it was shown that, apart from the quadratic and quartic Lagrangians, Galileon-like derivative self-interactions for the massive 2-form do not exist. A unique quartic Lagrangian $ε^{μνρσ}ε^{αβγ}_{\;\;\;\;\;\;σ}\partial_μB_{αρ}\partial_νB_{βγ}$ arises in this construction in a way that it corresponds to a total derivative on its own but ceases to be so once an overall general function is introduced. We show that it exactly corresponds to the same interaction of topological mass generation. Based on the decoupling limit analysis of the interactions, we bring out supporting arguments for the uniqueness of such a topological mass term and absence of the Galileon-like interactions. Finally, we discuss some preliminary applications in cosmology.
Schwinger's mechanism for mass generation relies on topological structures of a 2-dimensional gauge theory. In the same manner, corresponding 4-dimensional topological entities give rise to topological mass generation in four dimensions.
The effective action of string theory in three dimensions is investigated, incorporating the Lorentz and gauge Chern-Simons terms in the definition of the Kalb-Ramond axion field strength. Since in three dimensions any three-form is trivial, the action can be reformulated by properly integrating the axion out. The circumstances under which it can be recast in form of topologically massive gravity coupled to a topologically massive gauge theory are pointed out. Finally, the strong coupling limit of the resulting action is inspected, with the focus on the roles played by the axion and dilaton fi…
In the light of $ϕ$--mapping method and topological current theory, the topological structure and the topological quantization of arbitrary dimensional topological defects are investigated. It is pointed out that the topological quantum numbers of the defects are described by the Winding numbers of $ϕ$--mapping which are determined in terms of the Hopf indices and the Brouwer degrees of $ϕ$--mapping. Furthermore, it is shown that all the topological defects are generated from where $\vec ϕ=0$, i.e. from the zero points of the $ϕ$--mapping.
The 4-dimensional model with topological mass generation that has recently been presented by Dvali, Jackiw and Pi [G. Dvali, R. Jackiw, and S.-Y. Pi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 081602 (2006), hep-th/0610228] is generalized to any even number of dimensions. As in the 4-dimensional model, the 2n-dimensional model describes a mass-generation phenomenon due to the presence of the chiral anomaly. In addition to this model, new 2n-dimensional models with topological mass generation are proposed, in which a Stueckelberg-type mass term plays a crucial role in the mass generation. The mass generation of a ps…
Tachyon condensation in topological Landau-Ginzburg models can generally be studied using methods of commutative algebra and properties of triangulated categories. The efficiency of this approach is demonstrated by explicitly proving that every D-brane system in all minimal models of type ADE can be generated from only one or two fundamental branes.
We propose a mechanism to give mass to tensor matter field which preserve the U(1) symmetry. We introduce a complex vector field that couples with the tensor in a topological term. We also analyze the influence of the kinetic terms of the complex vector in our mechanism.
By dimensional reduction of a massive BF theory, a new topological field theory is constructed in (2+1) dimensions. Two different topological terms, one involving a scalar and a Kalb-Ramond fields and another one equivalent to the four-dimensional BF term, are present. We constructed two actions with these topological terms and show that a topological mass generation mechanism can be implemented. Using the non-Chern-Simons topological term, an action is proposed leading to a classical duality relation between Klein-Gordon and Maxwell actions. We also have shown that an action in (2+1) dimensio…
In this paper the effective potential approach in quantum field theory is used in order to investigate self-interaction loop correction to the Casimir energy density and generation of topological mass for both massless and massive real scalar fields. It is assumed that the scalar field obeys a helix boundary condition. In addition, it is also considered a CPT-even aether-type violation of the Lorentz symmetry. In the absence of the Lorentz violation we obtain analytical expressions for the loop correction to the Casimir energy density and to the mass of the scalar field. The same expressions a…
We shall discuss issues of duality and topological mass generation in diverse dimensions. Particular emphasis will be given to the mass generation mechanism from interference between self and anti self-dual components, as disclosed by the soldering formalism. This is a gauge embedding procedure derived from an old algorithm of second-class constraint conversion used by the author to approach anomalous gauge theories. The problem of classification of the electromagnetic duality groups, both massless and massive, that is closely related will be discussed. Particular attention will be paid to a n…
We suggest a mechanism whereby the three generations of quarks and leptons correspond to surface modes in a five-dimensional theory. These modes arise from a nonlinear fermion dispersion relation in the extra dimension, much in the same manner as fermion surface modes in a topological insulator or lattice implementation of domain wall fermions. We also show that the topological properties can persist in a deconstructed version of the model in four dimensions.
We study the mass generation of self-dual two form gauge field by topologically coupling it to the three rank anti-symmetric field. We use the various non-covariant Lagrangian of self-dual two form to perform the analysis and find that the field equation of massive self-dual two form gauge field may be described by $\partial^2 B^{ab}+m^2B^{ab}=0$ or $\partial_c (F^{cab}-\tilde F^{cab})+m^2B^{ab}=0$. We also find that, depending on the formulation of self-dual two form gauge field, the three rank anti-symmetric field may or may not be totally eliminated. Thus the different Lagrangian will show …
We study the topological mass generation in the 4 dimensional nonabelian gauge theory, which is the extension of the Allen $et$ $al.$'s work in the abelian theory. It is crucial to introduce a one form auxiliary field in constructing the gauge invariant nonabelian action which contains both the one form vector gauge field $A$ and the two form antisymmetric tensor field $B$. As in the abelian case, the topological coupling $m B\wedge F$, where $F$ is the field strength of $A$, makes the transmutation among $A$ and $B$ possible, and consequently we see that the gauge field becomes massive. We fi…
Casimir effect, loop corrections and topological mass generation for interacting real and complex scalar fields in Minkowski spacetime with different conditions
It is proposed a new mechanism for the phenomenon of topological mass generation in three spacetime dimensions as the result of the interference of two opposite massless chiral modes. This mechanism, already used to produce the massive vectorial mode of the 2D Schwinger model, is here exploited to produce the gauge invariant massive mode of the Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory. Moreover the procedure is clearly dimensionally independent: a new chiral boson action is proposed for odd and even dimensional space-times to be used as the basic building blocks of the interference schemes. This is a new r…
Following a novel approach, all known basic mass generation mechanisms consistent with an exact abelian U(1) gauge symmetry are shown to be related through an intricate network of dualities whatever the spacetime dimension. This equivalence which applies in the absence of any supersymmetry, is however restricted by the presence of topological terms generating possible topological effects. In particular in 3+1 dimensions the duality relations between the Maxwell-Higgs model, the Stueckelberg and the topological mass generation mechanisms are then established following a careful treatment of the…
A model in which the massive dilaton is introduced by minimally extending the two dimensional topological gravity is studied semi-classically. The theory is no longer topological because of the explicit Weyl scale symmetry breaking. Due to the dilaton the semiclassical stress-energy tensor gets renormalized and it is shown how the gravitational background coupled to the the dilaton depends on the dilaton mass as well as the renormalization mass scale, but not on the Newton's constant.
Mass generation of gauge fields can be universally described by topological couplings in gapped systems, such as the Abelian Higgs model in $(3+1)$ dimensions and the Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory in $(2+1)$ dimensions. These systems also exhibit the spontaneous breaking of higher-form $\mathbb{Z}_k$ symmetries and topological orders for level $k \geq 2$. In this paper, we consider topological mass generation in gapless systems. As a paradigmatic example, we study the axion electrodynamics with level $k$ in $(3+1)$ dimensions in background fields that hosts both gapped and gapless modes. We argu…
We developed a quantum field theoretical description for the surface states of three-dimensional topological insulators. Within the relativistic quantum field theory formulation, we investigated the dynamics of low-lying surface states in an applied transverse magnetic field. We argued that, by taking into account quantum fluctuations, in three-dimensional topological insulators there is dynamical generation of a gap by a rearrangement of the Dirac sea. By comparing with available experimental data we found that our theoretical results allowed a consistent and coherent description of the Landa…
The Lagrangian of non-Abelian tensor gauge fields describes the interaction of the Yang-Mills and massless tensor bosons of increasing helicities. We have found a metric-independent gauge invariant density which is a four-dimensional analog of the Chern-Simons density. The Lagrangian augmented by this Chern-Simons-like invariant describes massive Yang-Mills boson, providing a gauge-invariant mass gap for a four-dimensional gauge field theory. We present invariant densities which can provide masses to the high rank tensor bosons.
The four-dimensional model with topological mass generation that was found by Dvali, Jackiw and Pi has recently been generalized to any even number of dimensions (2n-dimensions) in a nontrivial manner in which a Stueckelberg-type mass term is introduced [S. Deguchi and S. Hayakawa, Phys. Rev. D 77, 045003 (2008), arXiv:0711.1446]. The present paper deals with a self-contained model, called here a modified hybrid model, proposed in this 2n-dimensional generalization and considers the canonical formalism for this model. For the sake of convenience, the canonical formalism itself is studied for a…
The restriction of space-time dimensions to "2+1" leads us to a novel quantum field theory which has the Chern-Simons term in its action. This term changes the nature of gauge interaction by giving a so-called topological mass to a gauge field without breaking the gauge symmetry. We investigate how a dynamical mass of fermion is affected by the topological mass in the non-perturbative Schwinger-Dyson method.
A bound state problem in a topologically massive quantum electrodynamics is investigated by using a non-perturbative method. We formulate the Bethe- Salpeter equation for scalar bound states composed of massive fermion and anti-fermion pair under the lowest ladder approximation. In a large mass expansion for the (anti-) fermion, we derive the Schr{ö}dinger equation and solve it by a numerical method. The energy eigenvalues of bound states are evaluated for various values of a topological mass and also a fermion mass. Then we find a novel logarithmic scaling behaviour of the binding energy in v…
The massive topologically and self dual theories en seven dimensions are considered. The local duality between these theories is established and the dimensional reduction lead to the different dualities for massive antisymmetric fields in four dimensions.
We investigate how a dynamical mass of a fermion is affected by a topological mass of a gauge field in a Maxwell-Chern-Simons $QED_3$ coupled with a two-component fermion. The dynamical mass and also a parity condensate are estimated by using a non-perturbative Schwinger-Dyson method. In particular, we study a limit of vanishing the topological mass in detail and clarify a linking between theories with and without a Chern-Simons term in a non-perturbative level.
Three dimensional (abelian) gauged massive Thirring model is bosonized in the large fermion mass limit. A further integration of the gauge field results in a non-local theory. A truncated version of that is the Maxwell Chern Simons (MCS) theory with a conventional mass term or MCS Proca theory. This gauge invariant theory is completely solved in the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian formalism, with the spectra of the modes determined. Since the vector field constituting the model is identified (via bosonization) to the fermion current, the charge current algebra, including the Schwinger term is also …
The existence of three generations of neutrinos(charged leptons/quarks) and their mass mixing are deep mysteries of our universe. Recently, Majorana's spirit returns in modern condensed matter physics -- in the context of topological Majorana zero modes in certain classes of topological superconductors(TSCs). In this paper, we attempt to investigate the topological nature of the neutrino by assuming that a relativistic Majorana fermion can be divided into four topological Majorana zero modes at cutoff energy scale, e.g. planck scale. We begin with an exactly solvable $1$D lattice model which r…
We consider a topologically massive Ginzburg-Landau model of superconductivity. In the context of a mean field calculation, we show that there is an increase in the critical temperature driven by the topological term. It is shown that this effect persists even if we take into account the critical fluctuations. The renormalization group analysis gives further insight on this behavior. The fixed point structure is such that the critical exponents tend to their mean field values for very large values of the topological mass. In this sense, the topological term stabilizes the critical fluctuations…
The infamous strong CP problem in particle physics can in principle be solved by a massless up quark. In particular, it was hypothesized that topological effects could substantially contribute to the observed nonzero up-quark mass without reintroducing CP violation. Alternatively to previous work using fits to chiral perturbation theory, in this Letter, we bound the strength of the topological mass contribution with direct lattice QCD simulations, by computing the dependence of the pion mass on the dynamical strange-quark mass. We find that the size of the topological mass contribution is inco…
Recently, Majorana's spirit returns to modern condensed matter physics -- in the context of topological Majorana zero mode that represents a local half degree of freedom carrying non-Abelian statistics.In this paper, we investigate the topological nature of a Majorana fermion by assuming that it is made up of four Majorana zero modes at cutoff energy scale. First, we show that a pair of Majorana zero modes can realize a $T^4=-1$ time reversal symmetry, a $P^4=-1$ parity symmetry and even a nontrivial $\overline C^4=-1$ charge conjugation symmetry. Next, we propose a $\overline CPT$ super algeb…
