A New Mechanism for Gauging a Theory

Abstract

We provide a mechanism of gauging a theory based on a particular way to embed a theory on a target space such that a nontrivial fibration is produced. A connection over a nontrivial fibration with monodromy provides a natural framework for a new way of gauging a theory. Moreover, properties of the global symmetry of the original theory are included in a particular way in the new theory. This mechanism for gauging a symmetry preserves the total number of degrees of freedom in distinction with the classical one. We consider a particular example to illustrate the mechanism: by reinterpreting the supermembrane with central charges as a gauged supermembrane of the compactified supermembrane according to this new sense of gauging. Further applications are also discussed.