The Symplectic Geometry of p-Form Gauge Fields

Abstract

We formulate interacting antisymmetric tensor gauge theory in a configuration space consisting of a pair of dual field strengths which has a natural symplectic structure. The field equations are formulated as the intersection of a pair of submanifolds of this infinite-dimensional symplectic configuration space, one of which is a Lagrangian submanifold while the other is either a coisotropic or Lagrangian submanifold, depending on the topology. Chern-Simons interactions give the configuration space an interesting global structure. We consider in detail the example of a six-dimensional theory of a 3-form field strength coupled to Yang-Mills theory via a Chern-Simons interaction. Our approach applies to a broad class of gauge systems.