English

Interpretation of the topological terms in gauge system

High Energy Physics - Theory 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

We provide an alternative interpretation for the topological terms in physics by investigating the low-energy gauge interacting system. The asymptotic behavior of the gauge field at infinity indicates that it traces out a closed loop in the infinite time interval: -infinity, + infinity. Adopting Berry's argument of geometric phase, we show that the adiabatic evolution of the gauge system around the loop results in an additional term to the effective action: the Chern-Simons term for three-dimensional spacetime, and the Pontrjagin term for the four-dimensional spacetime.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/9604185,
  title  = {Interpretation of the topological terms in gauge system},
  author = {Zhong Tang and David Finkelstein},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9604185},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

12 pages, RevTeX; submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett