On the general structure of gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten terms

Abstract

The problem of gauging a closed form is considered. When the target manifold is a simple Lie group G, it is seen that there is no obstruction to the gauging of a subgroup H\subset G if we may construct from the form a cocycle for the relative Lie algebra cohomology (or for the equivariant cohomology), and an explicit general expression for these cocycles is given. The common geometrical structure of the gauged closed forms and the D'Hoker and Weinberg effective actions of WZW type, as well as the obstructions for their existence, is also exhibited and explained.