non-Abelian Vector Fields Research Articles

Nonminimal non-Abelian quantum vector fields in curved spacetime

The quantum effective action of non-minimal vector fields with Abelian or non-Abelian gauge degrees of freedom in curved spacetime is studied. The Proca or Yang-Mills fields are coupled to a local mass-like term acting in both coordinate and gauge spaces. Pathologies due to gauge invariance in the ultraviolet are avoided through the introduction of a non-Abelian version of the Stueckelberg field. It is found that the breaking of gauge invariance induced by the mass term affects only the tree level part of the effective action. The ultraviolet divergent part of the effective action to one loop is obtained using the method of covariant symbols and dimensional regularization. Formulas are given valid for any spacetime dimension and explicit results are shown for the two-dimensional case. As already happened for a single vector field, the ultraviolet divergences are local but not of polynomial type.

Coupled multi-Proca vector dark energy

We study a new class of vector dark energy models where multi-Proca fields $A_\mu^a$ are coupled to cold dark matter by the term $f(X)\tilde{\mathcal{L}}_{m}$ where $f(X)$ is a general function of $X\equiv -\frac{1}{2}A^\mu_ a A^a_\mu$ and $\tilde{\mathcal{L}}_{m}$ is the cold dark matter Lagrangian. From here, we derive the general covariant form of the novel interaction term sourcing the field equations. This result is quite general in the sense that encompasses Abelian and non-Abelian vector fields. In particular, we investigate the effects of this type of coupling in a simple dark energy model based on three copies of canonical Maxwell fields to realize isotropic expansion. The cosmological background dynamics of the model is examined by means of a dynamical system analysis to determine the stability of the emergent cosmological solutions. As an interesting result, we find that the coupling function leads to the existence of a novel scaling solution during the dark matter dominance. Furthermore, the critical points show an early contribution of the vector field in the form of dark radiation and a stable de Sitter-type attractor at late times mimicking dark energy. The cosmological evolution of the system as well as the aforementioned features are verified by numerical computations. Observational constraints are also discussed to put the model in a more phenomenological context in the light of future observations.

Dynamical analysis of cosmological models with non-Abelian gauge vector fields

In this paper we study some models where non-Abelian gauge vector fields endowed with a SU(2) group representation are the unique source of inflation and dark energy. These models were first introduced under the name of gaugeflation and gaugessence, respectively. Although several realizations of these models have been discussed, not all available parameters and initial conditions are known. In this work, we use a dynamical system approach to find the full parameter space of the massive version of each model. In particular, we found that the inclusion of the mass term increases the length of the inflationary period. Additionally, the mass term implies new behaviors for the equation of state of dark energy allowing to distinguish this from other prototypical models of accelerated expansion. We show that an axially symmetric gauge field can support an anisotropic accelerated expansion within the observational bounds.

Stability conditions in the generalized SU(2) Proca theory

Under the same spirit of the Galileon-Horndeski theories and their more modern extensions, the generalized SU(2) Proca theory was built by demanding that its action may be free of the Ostrogradski's instability. Nevertheless, the theory must also be free of other instability problems in order to ensure its viability. As a first approach to address this issue, we concentrate on a quite general variant of the theory and investigate the general conditions for the absence of ghost and gradient instabilities in the tensor sector without the need for resolving the dynamical background. The phenomenological interest of this approach as well as of the variant investigated lies on the possibility of building cosmological models driven solely by non-Abelian vector fields that may account for a successful description of both the early inflation and the late-time accelerated expansion of the universe.

Critical behavior of a nonlocalϕ4field theory and asymptotic freedom

The critical behavior of a nonlocal scalar field theory is studied. This theory has a nonlocal kinetic term which involves a real power $1\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{\alpha}$ of the Laplacian. The interaction term is the usual local ${\ensuremath{\phi}}^{4}$ interaction. The lowest order Feynman diagrams corresponding to coupling constant renormalization, mass renormalization, and field renormalization are computed. Particular features appearing in the renormalization of this nonlocal theory that differ from the case of local theories are studied. The previous calculations lead to the perturbative computation of the coupling constant beta function and critical exponents $\ensuremath{\nu}$ and $\ensuremath{\eta}$. In four dimensions for $\ensuremath{\alpha}<0$ this beta function presents asymptotic freedom in the UV. This is remarkable since no non-Abelian vector fields are included. However, this comes at the expense of losing reflection positivity.

Finite BRST Mapping in Higher-Derivative Models

We continue the study of finite field dependent BRST (FFBRST) symmetry in the quantum theory of gauge fields. An expression for the Jacobian of path integral measure is presented, depending on a finite field-dependent parameter, and the FFBRST symmetry is then applied to a number of well-established quantum gauge theories in a form which includes higher-derivative terms. Specifically, we examine the corresponding versions of the Maxwell theory, non-Abelian vector field theory, and gravitation theory. We present a systematic mapping between different forms of gauge-fixing, including those with higher-derivative terms, for which these theories have better renormalization properties. In doing so, we also provide the independence of the S-matrix from a particular gauge-fixing with higher derivatives. Following this method, a higher-derivative quantum action can be constructed for any gauge theory in the FFBRST framework.

Chiral anomaly for V-A fields in four- and six-dimensional curved space

The chiral U(1) anomalies associated with a fermion of spin 1/2 interacting with nonabelian vector and axial-vector fields in four- and six-dimensional curved space are given in tensorial form.

β-function for topologically massive gluons

We calculate the quantum corrections to the two-point function of four-dimensional topologically massive non-Abelian vector fields at one-loop order for $SU(N)$ gauge theory in Feynman--'t Hooft gauge. We calculate the beta function of the gauge coupling constant and find that the theory becomes asymptotically free faster than pure $SU(N)$ gauge theory.

Duality-symmetric actions for non-Abelian tensor fields

We construct the duality-symmetric actions for a large class of six-dimensional models describing hierarchies of non-Abelian scalar, vector and tensor fields related to one another by first-order (self-)duality equations that follow from these actions. In particular, this construction provides a Lorentz invariant action for non-Abelian self-dual tensor fields. The class of models includes the bosonic sectors of the $6d$ (1,0) superconformal models of interacting non-Abelian self-dual tensor, vector, and hypermultiplets.

Isotropy theorem for cosmological Yang-Mills theories

We consider homogeneous non-abelian vector fields with general potential terms in an expanding universe. We find a mechanical analogy with a system of N interacting particles (with N the dimension of the gauge group) moving in three dimensions under the action of a central potential. In the case of bounded and rapid evolution compared to the rate of expansion, we show by making use of a generalization of the virial theorem that for arbitrary potential and polarization pattern, the average energy-momentum tensor is always diagonal and isotropic despite the intrinsic anisotropic evolution of the vector field. We consider also the case in which a gauge-fixing term is introduced in the action and show that the average equation of state does not depend on such a term. Finally, we extend the results to arbitrary background geometries and show that the average energy-momentum tensor of a rapidly evolving Yang-Mills fields is always isotropic and has the perfect fluid form for any locally inertial observer.

The primordial curvature perturbation from vector fields of generalnon-Abelian groups

We consider the generation of primordial curvature perturbation bygeneral non-Abelian vector fields without committing to a particulargroup. Self-interactions of non-Abelian fields make the fieldperturbation non-Gaussian. We calculate the bispectrum of the fieldperturbation using the in-in formalism at tree level. The bispectrumis dominated by the classical evolution of fields outside the horizon.In view of this we show that the dominant contribution can be obtainedfrom the homogeneous classical equation of motion. Then we calculatethe power spectrum of the curvature perturbation. The anisotropy inspectrum is suppressed by the number of fields. This makes it possiblefor vector fields to be responsible for the total curvature perturbationin the Universe without violating observational bounds on statisticalanisotropy. The bispectrum of the curvature perturbation is also anisotropic.Finally we give an example of the end-of-inflation scenario in whichthe curvature perturbation is generated by vector gauge fields throughvarying gauge coupling constant(s), which in covariant derivativescouples the Higgs field to the vector fields. We find that reasonablylarge gauge groups may result in the observable anisotropy in thepower spectrum of the curvature perturbation.

RADIATIVE CORRECTIONS IN VECTOR-TENSOR MODELS

We consider a two-form antisymmetric tensor field ϕ minimally coupled to a non-Abelian vector field with a field strength F. Canonical analysis suggests that a pseudoscalar mass term [Formula: see text] for the tensor field eliminates degrees of freedom associated with this field. Explicit one-loop calculations show that an additional coupling m Tr (ϕ ∧ F) (which can be eliminated classically by a tensor field shift) reintroduces tensor field degrees of freedom. We attribute this to the lack of the renormalizability in our vector-tensor model. We also explore a vector-tensor model with a tensor field scalar mass term [Formula: see text] and coupling m Tr (ϕ ∧ ⋆F). We comment on the Stueckelberg mechanism for mass generation in the Abelian version of the latter model.

Anisotropic trispectrum of curvature perturbations induced by primordial non-Abelian vector fields

Motivated by the interest in models of the early universe where statistical isotropy is broken and can be revealed in cosmological observations, we consider an SU(2) theory of gauge interactions in a single scalar field inflationary scenario. We calculate the trispectrum of curvature perturbations, as a natural follow up to a previous paper of ours, where we studied the bispectrum in the same kind of models. The choice of a non-Abelian set-up turns out to be very convenient: on one hand, gauge boson self-interactions can be very interesting being responsible for extra non-trivial terms (naturally absent in the Abelian case) appearing in the cosmological correlation functions; on the other hand, its results can be easily reduced to the U(1) case. As expected from the presence of the vector bosons, preferred spatial directions arise and the trispectrum reveals anisotropic signatures. We evaluate its amplitude τNL, which receives contributions both from scalar and vector fields, and verify that, in a large subset of its parameter space, the latter contributions can be larger than the former. We carry out a shape analysis of the trispectrum; in particular we discuss, with some examples, how the anisotropy parameters appearing in the analytic expression of the trispectrum can modulate its profile and we show that the amplitude of the anisotropic part of the trispectrum can be of the same order of magnitude as the isotropic part.

Effects of an optically induced non-Abelian gauge field in cold atoms

We show that $N\ensuremath{-}1$ degenerate dark states can be generated by coupling $N$-fold degenerate ground states and a common excited state with $N$ laser fields. Interferences between light waves with different frequencies can produce laser fields with time-dependent amplitudes, which can induce not only $\mathrm{U}(N)$ non-Abelian vector fields but also the scalar ones for the adiabatic motion of atoms in such laser fields. As an example, a time-periodic gauge potential is produced by applying specific laser fields to a tripod system. Some features of the Landau levels and the ground-state phase diagram of a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate for a concrete gauge field are also discussed.

An irreducible form for the asymptotic expansion coefficients of the heat kernel of fermions in four-dimensional curved space

We consider the heat kernel for a massless fermion of spin 1/2 interacting with all types of non-Abelian boson fields, i.e. scalar, pseudo-scalar, vector, axial-vector and antisymmetric tensor fields, in a four-dimensional Riemannian space. The couplings of the fermion with the boson fields contain irreducible matrices of the product of the γ-matrices. In this model, the components of the first and second asymptotic expansion coefficients of the heat kernel with respect to the irreducible matrices are explicitly presented. The form of the second coefficients is useful for evaluation of some fermionic anomalies in four-dimensional curved space, and the concrete forms of the chiral U(1) and the trace anomalies are presented.

Endowing the nonlinear sigma model with a flat connection structure: a way to renormalization

We discuss the quantized theory of a pure-gauge non-abelian vector field (flat connection) as it would appear in a mass term à la Stückelberg. However the paper is limited to the case where only the flat connection is present (no field strength term). The perturbative solution is constructed by using only the functional equations and by expanding in the number of loops. In particular we do not use a perturbative approach based on the path integral or on a canonical quantization. It is shown that there is no solution with trivial S-matrix.

An adiabatic approximation to the path integral for relativistic fermionic fields

A new approach to the path integral over fermionic fields, based on the extension of a reformulation of the adiabatic approximation to some quantum-mechanical systems, is presented. A novel non-analytic contribution to the effective fermionic action for a fermion field coupled to a non-Abelian vector field is identified. The possible interpretation of this contribution as a violation of the decoupling theorem in quantum field theory (QFT) is discussed. The generalization of the approach to the case of finite temperature and density suggests the possibility to apply it to the understanding of non-perturbative properties in QFT and their dependence on temperature and density.

THE STUECKELBERG FIELD

In 1938, Stueckelberg introduced a scalar field which makes an Abelian gauge theory massive but preserves gauge invariance. The Stueckelberg mechanism is the introduction of new fields to reveal a symmetry of a gauge-fixed theory. We first review the Stueckelberg mechanism in the massive Abelian gauge theory. We then extend this idea to the standard model, stueckelberging the hypercharge U(1) and thus giving a mass to the physical photon. This introduces an infrared regulator for the photon in the standard electroweak theory, along with a modification of the weak mixing angle accompanied by a plethora of new effects. Notably, neutrinos couple to the photon and charged leptons have also a pseudo-vector coupling. Finally, we review the historical influence of Stueckelberg's 1938 idea, which led to applications in many areas not anticipated by the author, such as strings. We describe the numerous proposals to generalize the Stueckelberg trick to the non-Abelian case with the aim to find alternatives to the standard model. Nevertheless, the Higgs mechanism in spontaneous symmetry breaking remains the only presently known way to give masses to non-Abelian vector fields in a renormalizable and unitary theory.

One-loop divergences in anomaly-free non-Abelian axial models

We consider one-loop divergences in a four-dimensional model in which a non-Abelian vector field has an axial vector coupling with a massless left-handed spinor field. This is done by computing the diagonal element of the second Seeley–deWitt coefficient a2(x,x). Even when the coupling is such that the axial anomaly vanishes, divergences arise that are not gauge invariant. Operator regularization is used throughout so as to leave the matrix γ5unambiguously defined. PACS No.: 11.15.q

Abelian and nonabelian vector field effective actions from string field theory

The leading terms in the tree-level effective action for the massless fields of the bosonic open string are calculated by integrating out all massive fields in Witten's cubic string field theory. In both the abelian and nonabelian theories, field redefinitions make it possible to express the effective action in terms of the conventional field strength. The resulting actions reproduce the leading terms in the abelian and nonabelian Born-Infeld theories, and include (covariant) derivative corrections.