Generalised Symmetries and Manifest Duality I: Flat Spacetime

Abstract

We present a novel, manifestly Lorentz-invariant, local, polynomial, and straightforwardly quantisable action for duality-symmetric gauge theories formulated using gauge potentials and fluxes. This new action possesses a novel higher-form gauge symmetry that we dub $h$-gauge symmetry, which on gauge fixing can lead to Sen's formalism or to a solely potential-based description. Unlike Sen's flux-based formalism, the potential-based action admits a simple minimal coupling to matter, thereby allowing us perform a number of consistency checks, including incorporating dynamical matter and establishing the Witten effect. The new action admits remarkably simple supersymmetrisation. We demonstrate the formalism explicitly for quantum electro-magnetodynamics in $D=4$. We also present a proof of charge quantisation that applies equally to our and Sen's formalisms.