Deformations of duality-symmetric theories

Abstract

We prove that a sum of free non-covariant duality-symmetric actions does not allow consistent, continuous and local self-interactions that deform the gauge transformations. For instance, non-abelian deformations are not allowed, even in 4 dimensions where Yang–Mills type interactions of 1-forms are allowed in the non-manifestly duality-symmetric formulation. This suggests that non-abelian duality should require to leave the standard formalism of perturbative local field theories. The analyticity of self-interactions for a single duality-symmetric gauge field in four dimensions is also analyzed.