Volume 67B, number 1

PHYSICS LETTERS

14 March 1977

SCALAR FIELD THEORY AND EXACT SOLUTIONS TO A CLASSICAL SU(2) GAUGE THEORY E. CORRIGAN and D.B. FAIRLIE
Department of Mathematics, Durham, England

Received 6 October 1976 We demonstrate a relationship between the solutions of a ~4 scalar field theory and a class of solutions to an SU (2) gauge theory. Most known exact solutions belong to this class. There has recently been considerable interest shown in the search for solutions of classical Yang-Mills field theories, stimulated by the discovery of monopole-like solutions in non-abelian gauge theories by Wu and Yang [1 ], 't Hooft [2] and Polyakov [3]. In this article we wish to report an intimate relationship between solutions of an SU(2) gauge theory and solutions of a ~b4 scalar field theory, working throughout in a four dimensional space time. We take the Lagrangian of the theory to be trodynamics [8] and nauo is the tensor introduced by 't Hooft [5]
% u = eOauo + b ua~ oO - ~ u O 6 a .

(4)

The quantity 77satisfies the following useful identities,

%,,o%uK = ~ u,,~,~ - e,ou,~ , rlauorlbuK = eabeTleoK + 6 ab6 K ,

(5) (6)

(1)

2~=--~GauvGau v ,

a = 1,2, 3, /~,v= 0, 1 ; 2 , 3 ,

(7)
r~au6% ~ o = rla~K6 uo + ~aav6 u~ + %~o ~u~ "

(8)

where
Gau v = ~u A a v - ~vAata + eabcAbtaAcv -

The coupling constant is set equal to one, without loss of generality classically. The equations of motion were shown by Belavin et al. [4] to possess a soliton-like solution, for a Euclidean space time, characterised by the property that A u is a pure gauge transformation at large distances (from the position o f the soliton in spacetime) not homotopic to the identity. The possible physical relevance of such a solution has been discussed by several authors, notably Polyakov [3], 't Hooft [5], Jackiw and Rebbi [6] and Callan et al. [7]. Our arguments will be presented using a Euclidean metric, since the above solution turns out to be a special case, but the relationship we find also holds for a Minkowski metric. We look for a solution in the Lorentz gauge,
auAau = 0 ,

Property (7) is particularly useful for the derivation of equations of motion. For Minkowski space we interpret the contractions appropriately and set 6uv ~ guy = diag ( 1 , - 1 , - 1 , - 1 ) . We consider a particularly simple case of (3) and set nab = 6 a b h , but say nothing about the functional dependence o f h on the space time variables x u. This is in contrast with the work of Marciano and Pagels [9] and Uy [10] who demanded dependence via r 2 = x 2 +y2 + z 2 + t 2 and w = x y z , respectively. Then, in addition to (2) the fields Aau together with ~uh form an orthogonal tetrad:
Aa~= r~auah, (ho=--~oh) ,

A a # A bu = 6 ab (h u )2 , Aa~h u = 0.

(9)

(2)

Using these properties we find that

G auv = nauv(h o ) 2 - rlaua(h ev + h ahv) + r~ava(h ou+ h oh u ) ,

a condition automatically fulfilled by the ansatz

Aa u = r l b u e ~ a n a b ,

(3)

together with the equations of motion:

D ~ G auv =- a u G a~v + eabeA bu G euv = 0 ,

(10)

where nab is the analogue of the Hertz vector of elec-

69

Volume 67B, number 1

PHYSICS LETTERS

14 March 1977

which become,

rlava((huu - (hu)2)u + 2ho(huu- (hu)2)) = 0 .

(11)

Remarkably, these equations may be integrated once and if we set h = - I n q5we find on integrating a2q~ = C~ba , (12)

quires a source. The choice ~bc~ 1/[xl provides a solution for which the magnetic part of the gauge field is precisely that of Wu and Yang [ 1]*. To complete our discussion we observe that the Bianchi identities are satisfied as well as the equations of motion. To see this we note that the dual of Gagv is Gauv--C euvooGao o - Gauv+ r?auv(hoo- ( h o ) 2 ) , (14)

where C is the constant of integration. Hence we have found that for every regular and positive solution to (C/4)q~ 4 theory we have a solution for the Yang Mills theory which is also regular everywhere. In particular ~b- N/(- 8X2/C) , 7.2 = x2 + y 2 +z 2 + t 2 ' 7.2 + ~2 is a solution for any X. Choosing C to be - 1 , in order to have a real field, we find that
2x a

and that the piece of G*uv containing rlauv also leads to the equation of motion (11) and hence that

D uGa*uv= 0 ,

(15)

is an algebraic identity, as it should be. We note that Gauv is not self dual even for the solution of ref. [4], since hoo - (ho)2 does not vanish. Finally we observe that the quantity GuvGu* is a divergence, explicitly

Aa u = rlauo 7.2 + ~2 '

(13)

1 Gldl)Gld V* = O,(h~(ho)2+hohoK-hKhacr) ,

(16)

the "instanton" solution of Belavin et al. [4]. If we were to set C = 0 we would then be able to relate solutions of Laplace's equation to solutions of the Yang-Mills theory. However, since (12) is then linear the only solution regular everywhere is ~ a constant - corresponding to the vacuum Aau = O. Other solutions are singular and must require sources to sustain them. We remark here that Kaku [11], working with an SU(4) gauge theory and a Minkowski metric, produced an equation similar to (11) but did not integrate it as we have done to yield (12), but instead constructed a solution in the following way. The vector potential describing the electromagnetic field of an arbitrarily moving unit charged particle at position Yi(t), velocity Yi(t), is
c , ~(t')

as it should be, and that for the solution of ref. [4]

f * 4 x = -87r 2 , G,vGuvd

fzGu~Gu~d
1

4 x = 87r 2. (17)

In general though, we do not expect the integrals in (17) to have the values an integer 8rr 2. The ansatz

Aau- rlauoh~ ,
where
t

rlauo = rlaprgpl~gro , with gou the Lorentz metric leads to the same equations of motion as before, but reverses the sign of the right hand side of eq. (16) - thus supplying, for example, an oppositely "charged instanton". To see this simply note that in the identities ( 5 ) - ( 8 ) the only change is in the sign of eubpo whereever it occurs. To summarise we have shown that there is a close relationship between an SU(2) gauge theory and a scalar ~b 4 field theory and that most the known exact solutions of the gauge theory can be understood within
t There is also, however an electric part to the gauge field. The Wu-Yang solution corresponds to another time independent choice o f the Hertz tensor, namely \lx0l ixl 2 ] '

B~(x)=Jdt R - - ~ 5 ( t ' - t + R(t')),

where ~ = (1 ,y), R (t) = Ix - y(t)l. Setting ~ = (B~Bc~)k/2, which is equivalent to the ansatz suggested in ref. [ 11 ], we discover that 02~9 =

Ik {3 uBa3 uB a + Baa2Ba}BvB.y

+ k (k - 2) {B~3uBoBe, OuBa}[(B.yB.~)(k/2)-2, which vanishes everywhere when k = 1, except along the world line of the charged particle. Such a solution, corresponds to the choice of C = 0 in eq. (12) and re70

which has the additional property that abTrab = 0.

Volume 67B, number 1

PHYSICS LETTERS

14 March 1977

this scheme. The question of o b t a i n i n g solutions, regular everywhere, which generalise the solution o f ref. [4] to other values o f the integrals in (17) remains open as we do n o t k n o w the general solution to eq. (12), and indeed the ansatz (3) or the choice %b = ~ab h m a y be too special to a c c o m m o d a t e these cases.

References
[ 1] T.T. Wu and C.N. Yang, in: Properties of matter under unusual conditions, eds. H. Mark and S. Fernbach (Interscience, New York, t969).

[2] G. 't Hooft, Nucl. Phys. B79 (1974) 276. [3] A. Polyakov, JETP Letters 20 (1974) 194, Phys. Lett. 59B (1975) 82. [4] A. Belavin et al., Plays. Lett. 59B (1975) 85. [5] G. 't Hooft, Phys. Rev. Lett. 37 (1976) 8. [6] R. Jackiw and C. Rebbi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 37 (1976) 173. Phys. Rev. D14 (1976) 517. [7] C. Callan, R. Dashen and D. Gross, Princeton Preprint (1976). [8] A. Nisbet, Proc. Roy. Soc. 231A (1955) 250. [9] W.J, Marciano and H. Pagels, Phys. Rev. D14 (1976)531 [10] Z.E.S. Uy, Nucl. Phys. B l l 0 (1976) 389. [11] M. Kaku, Phys. Rev. D13 (1976) 2281.

71