Chern-Simons Gauge Invariance and Boundary Conformal Fields

Abstract

The topological non-Abelian Chern-Simons theory with a boundary is shown to require a scalar field companion in order to preserve overall gauge-invariance both in the 3 dimensional manifold, as well as on its boundary. This scalar field, originally being a pure-gauge Chern-Simons excitation that indicates the most general topological gauge structure in the bulk, is found to be crucial for dynamic scalar excitation on the 2 dimensional generic boundary manifold, the latter naturally representing a conformal mode. This gauge/CFT correspondence is general, for a compact gauge group.