Double field formulation of Yang-Mills theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a covariant double field theory formulation of Yang-Mills theory that maintains O(D,D) T-duality symmetry and incorporates gauge, diffeomorphism, and one-form symmetries, coupling gauge fields to closed string backgrounds.

Contribution

It introduces a novel double field formulation of Yang-Mills theory that is covariant under T-duality and integrates gauge fields with string background fields in a unified framework.

Findings

Constructed a T-duality covariant Yang-Mills action

Coupled gauge fields to string backgrounds including dilaton, graviton, and B-field

Resembles a twisted Yang-Mills action with extended symmetries

Abstract

Based on our previous work on the differential geometry for the closed string double field theory, we construct a Yang-Mills action which is covariant under O(D,D) T-duality rotation and invariant under three-types of gauge transformations: non-Abelian Yang-Mills, diffeomorphism and one-form gauge symmetries. In double field formulation, in a manifestly covariant manner our action couples a single O(D,D) vector potential to the closed string double field theory. In terms of undoubled component fields, it couples a usual Yang-Mills gauge field to an additional one-form field and also to the closed string background fields which consist of a dilaton, graviton and a two-form gauge field. Our resulting action resembles a twisted Yang-Mills action.