On chiral bosons in 2D and 6D

Abstract

In the Hamiltonian formulation of chiral 2k-form electrodynamics, the 2k-form potential on the (4k + 1)-space is defined up to the addition of either (i) a closed 2k-form or (ii) an exact 2k-form, depending on the choice of chirality constraint. Case (i) is realized by the Floreanini-Jackiw 2D chiral boson (for k = 0) and its Henneaux-Teitelboim generalisation to k > 0. For all k, but focusing on the 6D case, we present a simple Lorentz-invariant Hamiltonian model that realizes case (ii), and we derive it from Siegel’s manifestly Lorentz invariant Lagrangian formulation.