Homological perspective on edge modes in linear Yang-Mills and Chern-Simons theory
Abstract
We provide an elegant homological construction of the extended phase space for linear Yang-Mills theory on an oriented and time-oriented Lorentzian manifold M with a time-like boundary ∂ M that was proposed by Donnelly and Freidel [JHEP 1609, 102 (2016)]. This explains and formalizes many of the rather ad hoc constructions for edge modes appearing in the theoretical physics literature. Our construction also applies to linear Chern-Simons theory, in which case we obtain the extended phase space introduced by Geiller [Nucl. Phys. B 924, 312 (2017)].
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