Conserved currents and gauge invariance in Yang-Mills theory

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in classical Yang-Mills models without free abelian gauge fields, conserved currents can always be redefined to be gauge invariant, based on a recent analysis of the Wess-Zumino consistency condition.

Contribution

It provides a general proof that conserved currents in such Yang-Mills models can be made gauge invariant through redefinition, extending previous theoretical understanding.

Findings

Conserved currents can be redefined to be gauge invariant.

The result applies to models without free abelian gauge fields.

Based on analysis of the Wess-Zumino consistency condition.

Abstract

It is shown that in the absence of free abelian gauge fields, the conserved currents of (classical) Yang-Mills gauge models coupled to matter fields can be always redefined so as to be gauge invariant. This is a direct consequence of the general analysis of the Wess-Zumino consistency condition for Yang-Mills theory that we have provided recently.