Maxwell reduction on a circle
ID: maxwell-reduction-on-a-circle
A real five-dimensional Maxwell field on a circle of radius has a Fourier series with coefficients , . Its mixed field-strength component is . The nonzero modes transform as , . Thus is a Stueckelberg mechanism field and the gauge-invariant massive vector is . Its mass is and it has three physical polarizations. The zero modes instead consist of a massless four-dimensional Maxwell field and a real massless scalar field; the latter cannot be removed by a periodic infinitesimal gauge transformation. A positive Fourier level and its negative level are conjugate, not independent real fields.
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