Related papers: Electromagnetic duality anomaly in curved spacetim…
It is known that an electric-magnetic duality transformation is a symmetry of the classical source-free Maxwell theory in generic spacetimes. This provides a conserved Noether charge, physically related to the polarization state of the…
It is well known that the source-free Maxwell equations are invariant under electric-magnetic duality rotations, F --> F cos {\theta} + *F sin {\theta}. These transformations are indeed a symmetry of the theory in Noether sense. The…
The classical symmetry of the source-free Maxwell equations under electric-magnetic duality rotations leads to a conserved Noether charge, corresponding to the circular polarization of light. We show that, in quantum field theory, the…
It is well known that not every symmetry of a classical field theory is also a symmetry of its quantum version. When this occurs, we speak of quantum anomalies. The existence of anomalies imply that some classical Noether charges are no…
The vacuum Einstein equations admit a formulation closely analogous to the source-free Maxwell theory. In particular, the linearized equations exhibit an electric-magnetic duality symmetry. We develop a framework that makes this analogy…
We point out that the duality symmetry of free electromagnetism does not hold in the quantum theory if an arbitrary classical gravitational background is present. The symmetry breaks in the process of renormalization, as also happens with…
We discuss under what conditions the duality between electric and magnetic fields is a valid symmetry of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics. It is shown that Maxwell's equations in the absence of free charges satisfy duality invariance on…
The electromagnetic duality symmetry of Maxwell's equations in vacuum implies that the circular polarization $Q$ of classical electromagnetic waves is conserved. In quantum field theory, the normal-ordered operator $\hat Q$ represents the…
Electromagnetic duality is a symmetry of the source-free Einstein-Maxwell equations that rotates electric and magnetic fields while leaving the stress-energy tensor invariant. We present the first fully nonlinear realization of this…
We derive Maxwell equations for electric and magnetic fields in curved spacetime from first principles, relaxing an unnecessary assumption on the structure of the four-potential inherent to the standard approach and thus restoring the full…
We consider the ($3{+}1$)-dimensional Maxwell theory in the situation where going around nontrivial paths in the spacetime involves the action of the duality transformation exchanging the electric field and the magnetic field, as well as…
The duality symmetry between electricity and magnetism hidden in classical Maxwell equations suggests the existence of dual charges, which have usually been interpreted as magnetic charges and have not been observed in experiments. In…
The space-time curvature carried by electromagnetic fields is discovered and a new unification of geometry and electromagnetism is found. Curvature is invariant under charge reversal symmetry. Electromagnetic field equations are examined…
We study the implications of non-invertible chiral symmetry in a four-dimensional U(1) gauge theory coupled to massless fermions with electromagnetic $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ duality. This is done by deriving the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly of…
We describe the interplay between electric-magnetic duality and higher symmetry in Maxwell theory. When the fine-structure constant is rational, the theory admits non-invertible symmetries which can be realized as composites of…
The possibility that QED and recently developed non-Hermitian, or magnetic, versions of QED are equivalent is considered. Under this duality the Hamiltonians and anomalous axial currents of the two theories are identified. A consequence of…
In 3+1 dimensional spacetime, two vector gauge anomalies are known: The chiral anomaly and the mixed axial-gravitational anomaly. While the former is well documented and tied to the presence of a magnetic field, the latter instead requires…
A fundamental result of classical electromagnetism is that Maxwell's equations imply that electric charge is locally conserved. Here we show the converse: Local charge conservation implies the local existence of fields satisfying Maxwell's…
Vacuum fluctuations of quantum fields are altered in presence of a strong gravitational background, with important physical consequences. We argue that a non-trivial spacetime geometry can act as an optically active medium for quantum…
We generalize duality invariance for the free Maxwell action in an arbitrary background geometry to include the presence of electric and magnetic charges. In particular, it follows that the actions of equally charged electric and magnetic…