Asymptotic symmetries of Yang-Mills theory

Abstract

Asymptotic symmetries at future null infinity (I +) of Minkowski space for electrodynamics with massless charged fields, as well as non-Abelian gauge theories with gauge group G, are considered at the semiclassical level. The possibility of charge/color flux through I + suggests the symmetry group is infinite-dimensional. It is conjectured that the symmetries include a G Kac-Moody symmetry whose generators are ”large” gauge transformations which approach locally holomorphic functions on the conformal two-sphere at I + and are invariant under null translations. The Kac-Moody currents are constructed from the gauge field at the future boundary of I +. The current Ward identities include Weinberg’s soft photon theorem and its colored extension.