On dualities for non-Abelian gauge theories with continuous center

Abstract

Formulating gauge theories for gauge groups admitting a continuous center can require to include charged scalars to define a gauge-coupling function. We show that the gauge-fields in the center can be dualized into form-fields of dimension-dependent degree. The resulting theory admits a smaller gauge group that factorizes out the center, but contains a Chern-Simons type term coupling the scalars to the form-fields. As an explicit example we consider the gauge group being the Heisenberg group and show that the dual action only admits an Abelian gauge symmetry. We comment on the vacuum symmetries in these settings, their supersymmetrization, and point out their importance in string theory.