Diamond of infrared equivalences in abelian gauge theories

Journal Article · 24 November 2024 · Physical Review. D.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.110.105018 · OSTI ID:2478743

He, Temple  ^[1]; Mitra, Prahar  ^[2]; Zurek, Kathryn M. ^[1]

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1. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
2. University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

We demonstrate a tree-level equivalence between four distinct infrared objects in (d+2)-dimensional Abelian gauge theories. These are (i) the large gauge charge Q_ϵ where the function ϵ on the sphere parametrizing large gauge transformations is identified with the Goldstone mode θ of spontaneously broken large gauge symmetry; (ii) the soft effective action that captures the dynamics of the soft and Goldstone modes; (iii) the edge mode action with Neumann boundary conditions; and (iv) the Wilson line dressing of a scattering amplitude, including a novel dressing for soft photons, which have local charge distributions despite having vanishing global charge. The promotion of the large gauge parameter to the dynamical Goldstone and the novel dressing of soft gauge particles give rise to intriguing possibilities for the future study of infrared dynamics of gauge theories and gravity.

• Research Organization: California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: European Union’s Horizon 2020; Heising-Simons Foundation “Observational Signatures of Quantum Gravity”; USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0011632
• OSTI ID: 2478743
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 110; ISSN 2470-0010
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English