1995/08/31 by Yolanda Lozano · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/0370-2693(95)01081-1
published as Phys.Lett. B364 (1995) 19-26 · 13 pages, latex file, important changes in the non-abelian case. Some references added
arxiv created 1995/11/03 · openalex publication_date 1995/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We show that S-duality in four dimensional non-supersymmetric abelian gauge theories can be formulated as a canonical transformation in the phase space of the theory. This transformation is the usual interchange between electric and magnetic degrees of freedom. It is shown that in phase space the modular anomaly emerges as the result of integrating out the momenta degrees of freedom. The generalization to d dimensional abelian gauge theories of p forms is also considered. In the case of non-abelian gauge theories a careful analysis of the constraints implied by the canonical transformation shows that it does not relate Yang-Mills theories with inverted couplings. In fact the dual theory is shown to be of Freedman- Townsend's type, also with τ=-1/τ, τ=\fracθ2π+(4πi)/(g2).