Electromagnetic duality and the electric memory effect

A bstract We study large gauge transformations for soft photons in quantum electrodynamics which, together with the helicity operator, form an ISO(2) algebra. We show that the two non-compact generators of the ISO(2) algebra correspond respectively to the residual gauge symmetry and its electromagne...

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Veröffentlicht in:The journal of high energy physics 2018-02, Vol.2018 (2), p.1-17, Article 46
Hauptverfasser: Hamada, Yuta, Seo, Min-Seok, Shiu, Gary
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:A bstract We study large gauge transformations for soft photons in quantum electrodynamics which, together with the helicity operator, form an ISO(2) algebra. We show that the two non-compact generators of the ISO(2) algebra correspond respectively to the residual gauge symmetry and its electromagnetic dual gauge symmetry that emerge at null infinity. The former is helicity universal (electric in nature) while the latter is helicity distinguishing (magnetic in nature). Thus, the conventional large gauge transformation is electric in nature, and is naturally associated with a scalar potential. We suggest that the electric Aharonov-Bohm effect is a direct measure for the electromagnetic memory arising from large gauge transformations.
ISSN:1029-8479
1029-8479
DOI:10.1007/JHEP02(2018)046