Magnetic charges in local field theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Lagrangian framework that treats electric and magnetic gauge fields equally, incorporating tensor gauge fields to maintain correct degrees of freedom, with applications in supergravity and flux compactifications.

Contribution

It presents a new gauge-invariant Lagrangian formulation that unifies electric and magnetic non-abelian gauge fields without duality transformations, extending previous supergravity methods.

Findings

Unified electric and magnetic gauge fields in a single Lagrangian.

Tensor gauge fields ensure correct degrees of freedom.

Applicable to flux compactifications in supergravity.

Abstract

Novel Lagrangians are discussed in which (non-abelian) electric and magnetic gauge fields appear on a par. To ensure that these Lagrangians describe the correct number of degrees of freedom, tensor gauge fields are included with corresponding gauge symmetries. Non-abelian gauge symmetries that involve both the electric and the magnetic gauge fields can then be realized at the level of a single gauge invariant Lagrangian, without the need of performing duality transformations prior to introducing the gauge couplings. The approach adopted, which was initially developed for gaugings of maximal supergravity, is particularly suited for the study of flux compactifications.