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arXiv · hep-th/0212140

Large Gauge Invariance in NonAbelian Finite Temperature Effective Actions

S. Deser·L. Griguolo·D. Seminara
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Abstract

We analyze large gauge invariance in combined nonabelian and thermal QFT and their physical consequences for D=3 effective actions. After briefly reviewing the structure of bundles and large gauge transformations that arise in non-simply connected 3-manifolds and gauge groups, we discuss their connections to Chern-Simons terms and Wilson-Polyakov loops. We then provide an invariant characterization of the ``abelian'' fluxes encountered in explicit computations of finite temperature effective actions. In particular we relate, and provide explicit realizations of, these fluxes to a topological index that measures the obstruction to global diagonalization of the loops around compactified time. We also explore the fate of, and exhibit some everywhere smooth, large transformations for non-vanishing index in various topologies.

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S. Deser, L. Griguolo, D. Seminara. 2002-12-12. Large Gauge Invariance in NonAbelian Finite Temperature Effective Actions. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.67.065016

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