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Asymptotic Structure of Higher Dimensional Yang-Mills Theory

by Temple He, Prahar Mitra

This Submission thread is now published as

Submission summary

Authors (as registered SciPost users): Prahar Mitra
Submission information
Preprint Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.04571v2  (pdf)
Date accepted: 2024-05-07
Date submitted: 2023-12-07 19:10
Submitted by: Mitra, Prahar
Submitted to: SciPost Physics
Ontological classification
Academic field: Physics
Specialties:
  • High-Energy Physics - Theory
Approach: Theoretical

Abstract

Using the covariant phase space formalism, we construct the phase space for non-Abelian gauge theories in $(d+2)$-dimensional Minkowski spacetime for any $d \geq 2$, including the edge modes that symplectically pair to the low energy degrees of freedom of the gauge field. Despite the fact that the symplectic form in odd and even-dimensional spacetimes appear ostensibly different, we demonstrate that both cases can be treated in a unified manner by utilizing the shadow transform. Upon quantization, we recover the algebra of the vacuum sector of the Hilbert space and derive a Ward identity that implies the leading soft gluon theorem in $(d+2)$-dimensional spacetime.

Author comments upon resubmission

We found an error in the earlier version of the submitted manuscript which has been corrected in the new one. Specific changes are listed below.

List of changes

1. We have rewritten equation (2.19) in terms of ${\hat A}$ instead of ${\bar A}$. The new ${\hat A}$ is defined in equation (2.20).

2. We have modified the definition of $E^\pm$. The new definition is given in equation (2.20).

3. In the paragraph below equation (2.23), we previously erroneously claimed that the Coulombic part of the gauge field dies off at large $|u|$. We have fixed this in the new version by adding a new segment to the paper (Paragraph starting at equation (2.24) and ending at equation (2.28), along with footnote 8). However, the final conclusion, equation (2.28), remains unchanged.

4. In equation (2.31), we perform a mode expansion for the newly defined field ${\hat A}$, instead of ${\bar A}$. The new mode coefficients ${\bar {\cal O}}$ are defined in equation (2.32). We have replaced ${\cal O}$ with ${\bar {\cal O}}$ in equations (2.40), (3.1), (3.3), (3.4) and (3.14).

5. Minor notational change in footnote 10.

6. Fixed the formula for the large gauge charge in equation (3.15). The second term in (3.15) was previously missed.

7. Added the quantum commutators in equations (3.17) and (3.18).

Published as SciPost Phys. 16, 142 (2024)


Reports on this Submission

Report #2 by Anonymous (Referee 1) on 2024-5-3 (Invited Report)

  • Cite as: Anonymous, Report on arXiv:2306.04571v2, delivered 2024-05-03, doi: 10.21468/SciPost.Report.8971

Strengths

1. The paper is well written and the arguments and supporting calculations are clearly laid out.

2. The paper sheds light on a problem that pertains to an area of active research.

Weaknesses

1. The paper is mostly an extension of previous work. I still think that the results of this paper are illuminating and so this is not necessarily a big weakness.

Report

I would recommend this paper for publication.

Requested changes

This is optional but it would be illuminating if the authors were to include a comment on or a comparison to the edge mode pointed out in Appendix F.1 of https://arxiv.org/pdf/2210.11585 (although the discussion there was exclusively in the context of an abelian theory).

Recommendation

Publish (meets expectations and criteria for this Journal)

  • validity: high
  • significance: good
  • originality: good
  • clarity: high
  • formatting: excellent
  • grammar: excellent

Report #1 by Anonymous (Referee 2) on 2024-1-2 (Invited Report)

  • Cite as: Anonymous, Report on arXiv:2306.04571v2, delivered 2024-01-02, doi: 10.21468/SciPost.Report.8357

Strengths

1) Contains new technical results relevant to an active subject
2) Unifies and simplifies previous works
3) Very clearly written

Weaknesses

1) Primarily a technical extension of previous work by the same authors

Report

This paper treats the quantization of higher-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. That is a well-tread subject, but the main goal of the work is to understand the vacuum sector of the model which has received little attention. Developments over the past several years link that sector of the model to soft theorems and asymptotic symmetries, and it seems that studying the correspondence in higher dimensions does clarify and support some of the results in $D=4$.

The analysis builds on several previous papers by the same authors and the main result is a unified treatment of even and odd dimensional cases using some properties of the shadow transform.

I would view the work primarily as a technical extension of the authors' previous analyses. The results will be of interest to different groups, but especially to those working on celestial holography and related topics. The derivation of the generalized soft theorem in non-trivial vacua is especially nice and needed to be done.

I found the paper to be very well written and clear and I would recommend publication without the need for revision.

Requested changes

None

  • validity: top
  • significance: good
  • originality: high
  • clarity: top
  • formatting: perfect
  • grammar: perfect

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