Topologically Massive Gauge Theories and their Dual Factorised Gauge Invariant Formulation

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel duality construction for topologically massive gauge theories that maintains gauge invariance and separates the theory into massive and topological sectors, advancing the understanding of gauge dualities.

Contribution

It introduces an unconventional reparametrisation approach to derive a dual gauge-invariant factorised form of TMGT, preserving gauge symmetry and clarifying the theory's structure.

Findings

Dual action preserves original gauge symmetry

Dual action separates massive and topological sectors

Provides a new gauge invariant dual factorisation

Abstract

There exists a well-known duality between the Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory and the self-dual massive model in 2+1 dimensions. This dual description has been extended to topologically massive gauge theories (TMGT) in any dimension. This Letter introduces an unconventional approach to the construction of this type of duality through a reparametrisation of the master theory action. The dual action thereby obtained preserves the same gauge symmetry structure as the original theory. Furthermore, the dual action is factorised into a propagating sector of massive gauge invariant variables and a sector with gauge variant variables defining a pure topological field theory. Combining results obtained within the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations, a new completed structure for a gauge invariant dual factorisation of TMGT is thus achieved.