English

Null hypersurface quantization, electromagnetic duality and asymptotic symmetries of Maxwell theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2018-07-20 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

In this paper we consider introducing careful regularization in the quantization of Maxwell theory in the asymptotic null infinity. This allows systematic discussions of the commutators in various boundary conditions, and application of Dirac brackets accordingly in a controlled manner. This method is most useful when we consider asymptotic charges that are not localized at the boundary u±u\to \pm \infty like large gauge transformations. We show that our method reproduces the operator algebra in known cases, and it can be applied to other space-time symmetry charges such as the BMS transformations. We also obtain the asymptotic form of the U(1) charge following from the electromagnetic duality in an explicitly EM symmetric Schwarz-Sen type action. Using our regularization method, we demonstrate that the charge generates the expected transformation of a helicity operator. Our method promises applications in more generic theories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1708.05606,
  title  = {Null hypersurface quantization, electromagnetic duality and asymptotic symmetries of Maxwell theory},
  author = {Arpan Bhattacharyya and Ling-Yan Hung and Yikun Jiang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.05606},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

26 pages, typos corrected