1994/10/28 by Domenico Giulini · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Asymptotic freedom #Gauge (firearms) #Gauge boson #Gauge symmetry #Gauge theory #Geometric and Algebraic Topology #Geometry #Global symmetry #Introduction to gauge theory #Mathematical physics #Mathematics and Applications #Particle physics #Physics #Quantum electrodynamics #Spontaneous symmetry breaking #Supersymmetric gauge theory #Symmetry (geometry) #Symmetry breaking #Symmetry group #Theoretical physics #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0217732395002210
published as Mod.Phys.Lett.A10:2059-2070,1995 · 14 pages, Plain TeX, Report CGPG-94/10-5
arxiv created 1994/10/28 · openalex publication_date 1995/09/14 · arxiv updated 2010/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We make some general remarks on long-ranged configurations in gauge or diffeomorphism invariant theories where the fields are allowed to assume some nonvanishing values at spatial infinity. In this case the Gauss constraint only eliminates those gauge degrees of freedom which lie in the connected component of asymptotically trivial gauge transformations. This implies that proper physical symmetries arise either from gauge transformations that reach to infinity or those that are asymptotically trivial but do not lie in the connected component of transformations within that class. The latter transformations form a discrete subgroup of all symmetries whose position in the ambient group has proven to have interesting implications. We explain this for the dyon configuration in the SO(3) Yang-Mills-Higgs theory, where we prove that the asymptotic symmetry group is Z |m| ×ℝ where m is the monopole number. We also discuss the application of the general setting to general relativity and show that here the only implication of discrete symmetries for the continuous part is a possible extension of the rotation group SO(3) to SU(2).