On the dualization of Born-Infeld theories

Abstract

We construct a general Lagrangian, quadratic in the field strengths of $n$ abelian gauge fields, which interpolates between BI actions of n abelian vectors and actions, quadratic in the vector field-strengths, describing Maxwell fields coupled to non-dynamical scalars, in which the electric-magnetic duality symmetry is manifest. Depending on the choice of the parameters in the Lagrangian, the resulting BI actions may be inequivalent, exhibiting different duality groups. In particular we find, in our general setting, for different choices of the parameters, a ${\rm U}(n)$-invariant BI action, possibly related to the one in \cite{Aschieri:2008ns}, as well as the recently found $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric BI action \cite{Ferrara:2014oka}.