Uses of Chern-Simons actions

TL;DR

This paper reviews the role of Chern-Simons actions, highlighting their connection to classical actions and potential implications for quantization in higher odd dimensions.

Contribution

It proposes new insights into the quantization of Chern-Simons theories in dimensions greater than three, linking classical actions to CS systems.

Findings

Classical actions can be viewed as 0+1 Chern-Simons systems

Suggestions for understanding quantization in higher dimensions

Connections between CS actions and electromagnetic coupling

Abstract

The role of Chern-Simons (CS) actions is reviewed, starting from the observation that all classical actions in Hamiltonian form can be viewed as 0+1 CS systems, in the same class with the coupling between the electromagnetic field and a point charge. Some suggestions are derived that could shed some light on the quantization problem in D=2n-1>3 dimensions.