The Tulczyjew triple for gauge field theories

Abstract

In this article we construct and discuss a new rigorous geometric formalism for gauge field theories. The basis of our work is the notion of the Tulczyjew triple, a geometric structure which successfully solved numerous problems in mathematical description of mechanics and classical field theory. In particular, we construct a Tulczyjew triple for gauge field theories and reduce it for systems that depend only on the value of a connection and curvature instead of the entire first jet of the gauge field. We also introduce new geometric structures such as the vector-affine product of bundles and analyse the connection bundle from a new perspective. Finally, we apply the derived formalism to Yang-Mills theory.