2004/10/25 by R. Menezes, Roberto Menezes, C. Wotzasek +1
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Duality (order theory) #Geometry #Massless particle #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Parity (physics) #Physics #Pure mathematics #Quantum mechanics #Symmetry (geometry) #Symmetry group #Symplectic geometry #Theoretical physics #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2004.10.039
published as Phys.Lett. B604 (2004) 242-249 · 7 pages, Revtex4, accepted for publication Phys. Lett. B
arxiv created 2004/10/25 · openalex publication_date 2004/11/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study duality transformation and duality symmetry in the the electromagnetic-like charged p-form theories. It is shown that the dichotomic characterization of duality groups as Z2 or SO(2) remains as the only possibilities but are now present in all dimensions even and odd. This is a property defined in the symplectic sector of the theory both for massive and massless tensors. It is shown that the duality groups depend, in general, both on the ranks of the fields and on the dimension of the spacetime. We search for the physical origin of this two-fold property and show that it is traceable to the dimensional and rank dependence of the parity of certain operator (a generalized-curl) that naturally decomposes the symplectic sector of the action. These operators are only slightly different in the massive and in the massless cases but their physical origin are quite distinct.