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arXiv · 2411.11792

Electric-magnetic duality in the quantum theory

Adrian del Rio
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Abstract

It is known that an electric-magnetic duality transformation is a symmetry of the classical source-free Maxwell theory in generic spacetimes. This provides a conserved Noether charge, physically related to the polarization state of the electromagnetic field. We argue that this conservation law fails to hold at the quantum level in presence of a background classical gravitational field with non-trivial dynamics, as determined by the Chern-Pontryagin scalar. This is the spin 1 analog of the chiral anomaly for massless Dirac fermions.

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Adrian del Rio. 2024-11-18. Electric-magnetic duality in the quantum theory. https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.11792

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