Duality and helicity: A symplectic viewpoint

The theorem which says that helicity is the conserved quantity associated with the duality symmetry of the vacuum Maxwell equations is proved by viewing electromagnetism as an infinite dimensional symplectic system. In fact, it is shown that helicity is the moment map of duality acting as an SO(2) g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysics letters. B Vol. 761; no. C; pp. 265 - 268
Main Authors Elbistan, M., Duval, C., Horváthy, P.A., Zhang, P.-M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 10.10.2016
Elsevier
Subjects
Mathematical Physics
Physics
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Summary:The theorem which says that helicity is the conserved quantity associated with the duality symmetry of the vacuum Maxwell equations is proved by viewing electromagnetism as an infinite dimensional symplectic system. In fact, it is shown that helicity is the moment map of duality acting as an SO(2) group of canonical transformations on the symplectic space of all solutions of the vacuum Maxwell equations.
ISSN:0370-2693
1873-2445
DOI:10.1016/j.physletb.2016.08.041