Related papers: Abelian Duality and Abelian Wilson Loops
We revisit the proposal that the ensemble average over free boson CFTs in two dimensions - parameterized by Narain's moduli space - is dual to an exotic theory of gravity in three dimensions dubbed $U(1)$ gravity. We consider flavored…
It is well-known that if we gauge a $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry in two dimensions, a dual $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry appears, such that re-gauging this dual $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry leads back to the original theory. We describe how this can be…
A noncommutative gauge theory is associated to every Abelian gauge theory on a Poisson manifold. The semi-classical and full quantum version of the map from the ordinary gauge theory to the noncommutative gauge theory (Seiberg-Witten map)…
We construct the general formulation of N=1 supersymmetric self-dual abelian gauge theory involving auxiliary chiral spinor superfields. Self-duality in this context is just U(N) invariance of the nonlinear interaction of the auxiliary…
Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be a simple Lie algebra. We study 1/2-BPS Wilson loops of supersymmetric 5d $\mathfrak{g}$-type quiver gauge theories on a circle, in a non-trivial instanton background. The Wilson loops are codimension 4 defects of the…
Einstein's theory in the vacuum was recently shown to possess an $SO(2)$ duality invariance, which is broken by coupling to matter. Duality invariance can be restored by enlarging the phase space of the theory to allow for violations of the…
Strong-weak duality invariance can only be defined for particular sectors of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. Nevertheless, for full non-Abelian non-supersymmetric theories, dual theories with inverted couplings, have been found. We show…
This thesis presents a thorough analysis of the links between the N=4 supersymmetric gauge theory in four dimensions and its three topological twisted counterparts. Special emphasis is put in deriving explicit results in terms of the vacuum…
A systematic treatment is given of the Dirac quantisation condition for electromagnetic fluxes through two-cycles on a four-manifold space-time which can be very complicated topologically, provided only that it is connected, compact,…
We investigate the metric dependence of the partition function of the self-dual p-form gauge field on an arbitrary Riemannian manifold. Using geometric quantization of the space of middle-dimensional forms, we derive a projectively flat…
A Wilson loop is defined, in 4-D pure Einstein gravity, as the trace of the holonomy of the Christoffel connection or of the spin connection, and its invariance under the symmetry transformations of the action is showed (diffeomorphisms and…
We propose a topological version of four-dimensional (Euclidean) Einstein gravity, in which anti-self-dual 2-forms and an SU(2) connection are used as fundamental fields. The theory describes the moduli space of conformally self-dual…
Free Maxwell theory on general four-manifolds may, under certain conditions on the background geometry, exhibit holomorphic factorization in its partition function. We show that when this occurs, new discrete symmetries emerge at orbifold…
We review the general theory of duality rotations which, in four dimensions, exchange electric with magnetic fields. Necessary and sufficient conditions in order for a theory to have duality symmetry are established. A nontrivial example is…
A closed expression of the Euclidean Wilson-loop functionals is derived for pure Yang-Mills continuum theories with gauge groups $SU(N)$ and $U(1)$ and space-time topologies $\Rl^1\times\Rl^1$ and $\Rl^1\times S^1$. (For the $U(1)$ theory,…
We elaborate on how to build, in a systematic fashion, two-field Abelian extensions of the Born-Infeld Lagrangian. These models realize the non-trivial duality groups that are allowed in this case, namely U(2), SU(2) and U(1)xU(1). For each…
Massive theories of abelian p-forms are quantized in a generalized path-representation that leads to a description of the phase space in terms of a pair of dual non-local operators analogous to the Wilson Loop and the 't Hooft disorder…
Abelian topologically massive gauge theories (TMGT) provide a topological mechanism to generate mass for a bosonic p-tensor field in any spacetime dimension. These theories include the 2+1 dimensional Maxwell-Chern-Simons and 3+1…
We give a wilsonian formulation of non-abelian gauge theories explicitly consistent with axial gauge Ward identitities. The issues of unitarity and dependence on the quantization direction are carefully investigated. A wilsonian computation…
This thesis discusses various aspects of duality in quantum field theory and string theory. In the first part we consider duality in topological quantum field theories, concentrating on the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten theories as (dual)…