Algebraic reduction of the 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole to the Dirac monopole

Abstract

In the context of the algebraic description of gauge fields by means of extensions of Lie algebras considered in previous articles by the authors, we define the notion of reduction of an extension of Lie algebras. Given a connection we define the holonomy algebra and the holonomy sequence of the connection and we prove that it is always possible to reduce the extension we start with to the holonomy sequence of the connection. As an example we construct a 't Hooft-Polyakov-like extension of algebras and reduce it to the extension which describes the Dirac monopole as discussed in a previous paper by the authors. The supersymmetric version of all results is obtained by replacing ordinary Lie algebras with Lie superalgebras.