SOLITONIC ASPECTS OF q-FIELD THEORIES

Abstract

We have examined the deformation of a generic non-Abelian gauge theory obtained by replacing its Lie group by the corresponding quantum group. This deformed gauge theory has more degrees of freedom than the theory from which it is derived. By going over from point particles in the standard theory to solitonic particles in the deformed theory, it is proposed that we interpret the new degrees of freedom as being descriptive of the non-locality of the deformed theory. It also turns out that the original Lie algebra gets replaced by two dual algebras, one of which lies close to and approaches the original Lie algebra in a correspondence limit, while the second algebra is new and disappears in this same correspondence limit. The exotic field particles associated with the second algebra can be interpreted as quark-like constituents of the solitons, which are themselves described as point particles in the first algebra. These ideas are explored for q-deformed SU(2) and GL q(3).