Connection space approach to ambiguities of gauge theories英文文献资料.docVIP

CONNECTIONSPACEAPPROACHTOAMBIGUITIES OFGAUGETHEORIES R.ALDROVANDIANDA.L.BARBOSA Received24October2004andinrevisedform17July2005 Twodistinctgaugepotentialscanhavethesame?eldstrength,inwhichcasetheyaresaid tobe“copies”ofeachother.Theconsequences ofthisambiguity forthegeneral a?ne space?ofgaugepotentialsareexamined.Anytwopotentialsareconnectedbyastraight linein?,butastraightlinegoingthroughtwocopieseithercontainsnoothercopyoris entirelyformedbycopies. 1.Introduction Inannonabeliangaugetheory,twoormoredistinctgaugepotentialscancorrespondto thesame?eldstrength.Asonly?eldstrengthsaremeasurable, itisimpossible toknow exactlywhichgauge potential isactually atworkinagivenphysicalsystem.Thisisthe Wu-Yangambiguity[26],whoseimportance comesfromthefactthat,inquantum?eld theory, the fundamental ?elds are the gauge potentials and not the ?eld strengths. In particular, the corresponding particles are the quanta of the gauge potentials. A good understanding ofthisambiguity, inallitsaspects andconsequences, does notseem to havebeenasyetachieved.Activityonthesubjecthasbeenintensiveinthe?rstyearsafter itsdiscovery[4,6,7,13,14,20,25]butdeclinedafterwards[19].Progresshasbeenmade stepbystep,sometimes throughthediscoveryofgeneralproperties offormalcharacter [9,10],mostoftimesbyunearthingparticularcaseswhichelucidatespecialpoints[3]. Thispaperpresents aformal property whichshowsupinthespaceofgaugepoten- tialsandprovides(atleast)apartialclassi?cation oftheconnectionscorresponding toa givencurvature.Wewilluseboththephysicist’sandthemathematician’snomenclatures interchangeably.Itshouldperhapsberecalledthatwhatphysicistscall“gaugepotentials” and“?eldstrengths”are,inthelanguageofmathematicians, “connections”and“curva- tures”on?berbundles. They are,respectively,1-forms and2-forms with values inthe Liealgebraofthegaugegroup(thebundle“structuregroup”).Connections andcurva- turesbelong,consequently,totheadjointrepresentation, inwhichthegroupactsonits ownLiealge