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Mills fields
We have seen how to associate a connection one-form to a connection, i.e. a certain Lie-
algebra-valued one-form to a smooth choice of horizontal spaces on the principal bundle.
We will now study how we can express this connection one-form locally on the base manifold
of the principal bundle.
which behaves like a one-form, in the sense that it is R-linear and satisfies the Leibniz
rule, and such that, in addition, for all A Te G, g G and X (T P ), we have
i) (X A ) = A;
If the pair (u, f ) is a principal bundle automorphism of (P, , M ), i.e. if the diagram
u
P P
CG CG
u
P P
f
M M
u
u
(T P )
C (N ), we defined
Recall that for a one-form : (T N )
() : (T M )
C (M )
X 7 ( (X))
1
for any diffeomorphism : M N . One might be worried about whether this and similar
definitions apply to Lie-algebra-valued one-forms but, in fact, they do. In our case, even
though lands in Te G, its domain is still (T P ) and if u : P P is a diffeomorphism of
P , then u X (T P ) and so
u : X 7 (u )(X) := (u (X)) u
CG
U := ;
h: U G P
(m, g) 7 (m) C g;
T(m,g) (U G)
=Lie alg Tm U Tg G.
Remark 22.1. Both the Yang-Mills field U and the local representation h encode the
information carried by locally on U . Since h involves U G while U doesnt, one
might guess that h gives a more accurate picture of on U than the Yang-Mills field.
But in fact, this is not the case. They both contain the same amount of local information
about the connection one-form .
2
22.2 The Maurer-Cartan form
Th relation between the Yang-Mills field and the local representation is provided by the
following result.
Remark 22.3. Note that we have represented a generic element of Tg G as LA g . This is due
to the following. Recall that the left translation map `g : G G is a diffeomorphism of G.
As such, its push-forward at any point is a linear isomorphism. In particular, we have
((`g ) )e : Te G
Tg G,
that is, the tangent space at any point g G can be canonically identified with the tangent
space at the identity. Hence, we can write any element of Tg G as
LA
g := ((`g ) )e (A)
for some A Te G.
Let us consider some specific examples.
Example 22.4. Any chart (U, x) of a smooth manifold M induces a local section : U LM
of the frame bundle of M by
(m) := , . . . , Lm M.
x1 m xdim M m
2
Since GL(dim M, R) can be identified with an open subset of R(dim M ) , we have
2
Te GL(dim M, R)
=Lie alg R(dim M ) ,
2
where R(dim M ) is understood as the algebra of dim M dim M square matrices, with
bracket induced by matrix multiplication. In fact, this holds for any open subset of a
vector space, when considered as a smooth manifold. A connection one-form
: (LM )
Te GL(dim M, R)
3
The associated Yang-Mills field U := is, at each point m U , a Lie-algebra-valued
one-form on the vector space Tm U . By using the co-ordinate induced basis and its dual
basis, we can express ( U )m in terms of components as
( U )m = U (m) (dx )m ,
for g GL(dim M, R), while the i, j indices simply label different one-forms, (dim M )2 in
total.
Note that the Maurer-Cartan form appearing in Theorem 22.2 only depends on the Lie
group (and its Lie algebra), not on the principal bundle P or the restriction U M . In the
following example, we will go through the explicit calculation of the Maurer-Cartan form
of the Lie group GL(d, R).
Example 22.5. Let (GL+ (d, R), x) be a chart on GL(d, R), where GL+ (d, R) denotes an
open subset of GL(d, R) containing the identity idRd , and let xij : GL+ (d, R) R denote
the corresponding co-ordinate functions
x 2
GL+ (d, R) x(GL+ (d, R)) Rd
projij
xij
so that xij (g) := g ij . Recall that the co-ordinate functions are smooth maps on the chart
domain, i.e. we have xij C (GL+ (d, R)). Also recall that to each A TidRd GL(d, R)
there is associated a left-invariant vector field
LA : C (GL+ (d, R))
C (GL+ (d, R))
which, at each point g GL(d, R), is the tangent vector to the curve
A (t) := g exp(tA).
4
Consider the action of LA on the co-ordinate functions:
where we have used the fact that for a matrix Lie group, the exponential map is just the
ordinary exponential
A
X 1 n
exp(A) = e := A .
n!
n=0
1 P 2
U1 U2
Suppose, for instance, that we have two open subsets U1 , U2 M and consider the Yang-
Mills fields associated to two local connections 1 , 2 . If U1 and U2 are both local versions
of a unique connection one-form, then is U1 U2 6= , the Yang-Mills fields U1 and U2
should satisfy some compatibility condition on U1 U2 .
5
Definition. Within the above set-up, the gauge map is the map
: U1 U2 G
Note that since the G-action C on P is free, for each m there exists a unique (m)
satisfying the above condition, and hence the gauge map is well-defined.
( U2 )m = (Ad1 (m) ) ( U1 ) + ( g )m .
Example 22.7. Consider again the frame bundle LM of some manifold M . Let us evaluate
explicitly the pull-back along of the Maurer-Cartan form. Since g : Tg G Te G and
: U1 U2 Te G, we have g : T (U1 U2 ) Te G. Let x be a chart map near the point
m U1 U2 . We have
(( g )m )ij = ( )
(m) j
i
x m x m
1 i k
= ((m) ) k (de x j )(m)
x m
= ((m)1 )ik xkj )
(e
x m
1 i
= ((m) ) k xkj )
(e
x m
1 i
= ((m) ) k ((m))kj .
x m
hence, we can write
i 1 i
(( g )m ) j = ((m) )k ((m))kj dx
x m
=: (1 d)ij .
Let us now compute the other summand. Recall that Adg is the map
Adg : G G
h 7 g h g 1
and since Adg (e) = e, the push-forward ((Adg ) )e : Te G
Te G is a linear endomorphism
of Te G. Moreover, since here G = GL(d, R) is a matrix Lie group, we have
Hence, we have
6
Altogether, we find that the transition rule for the Yang-Mills fields on the intersection of
U1 and U2 is given by
As an application, consider the spacial case in which the sections 1 , 2 are induced by
co-ordinate charts (U1 , x) and (U2 , y). Then we have
y i
ij = := j (y i x1 ) x
xj
xi
(1 )ij = := j (xi y 1 ) y
y j
and hence
y xi U1 k y l xi 2 y k
U2 i
( ) j = ( ) l j + k j .
x y k x y x x
You may recognise this as the transformation law for the Christoffel symbols from general
relativity.