Chern-Simons terms and the Three Notions of Charge
Abstract
In theories with Chern-Simons terms or modified Bianchi identities, it is useful to define three notions of either electric or magnetic charge associated with a given gauge field. A language for discussing these charges is introduced and the properties of each charge are described. `Brane source charge' is gauge invariant and localized but not conserved or quantized, `Maxwell charge' is gauge invariant and conserved but not localized or quantized, while `Page charge' conserved, localized, and quantized but not gauge invariant. This provides a further perspective on the issue of charge quantization recently raised by Bachas, Douglas, and Schweigert.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/0006117,
title = {Chern-Simons terms and the Three Notions of Charge},
author = {Donald Marolf},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0006117},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
11 pages, For the Proceedings of the E.S. Fradkin Memorial Conference, based on a talk given June 6 in Moscow