Hamiltonian analysis of the BFCG theory for a strict Lie 2-group

TL;DR

This paper conducts a Hamiltonian analysis of the BFCG theory for Lie 2-groups, demonstrating it is a topological field theory with no local degrees of freedom.

Contribution

It provides a complete Hamiltonian analysis of the BFCG action for general Lie 2-groups using the Dirac procedure, revealing its topological nature.

Findings

All local degrees of freedom are eliminated by the constraints.

The BFCG theory is confirmed to be a topological field theory.

The analysis applies to a general Lie 2-group.

Abstract

We perform a complete Hamiltonian analysis of the BFCG action for a general Lie 2-group by using the Dirac procedure. We show that the resulting dynamical constraints eliminate all local degrees of freedom which implies that the BFCG theory is a topological field theory.