Classification of generalized symmetries of the Yang-Mills fields with a semi-simple structure group (Q1877084)

The paper carries out a complete analysis of generalized symmetries of the Yang-Mills equations on four-dimensional Minkowski space with a semisimple structure group, basically using spinorial methods. The main computational tool is the exact sets of fields of Penrose, which can be used as a part of the coordinate system for the infinitely prolonged solution manifold determined by the Yang-Mills equations. It is shown that the conformal symmetries and their variant provided by the complex structure of the Lie algebra, when it exists, together with the generalized gauge symmetries are, up to equivalence, the only generalized symmetries admitted by the Yang-Mills equations. Namely, it is proved that given a semisimple Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}=\mathfrak{g}_1+\dots+\mathfrak{g}_n\) decomposed into simple ideals, any generalized symmetry of order \(p\) for \(\mathfrak{g}\)-valued Yang-Mills fields on the four-dimensional Minkowski space can be decomposed on solutions of the Yang-Mills equations, in terms of a first order symmetry of the Yang-Mills equation and of a \(\mathfrak{g}\)-valued function. The function can be chosen such that the first-order symmetry is expressible as a sum of first order symmetries for \(\mathfrak{g}_m\)-valued Yang-Mills fields which are either conformal symmetries (in the case when \(\mathfrak{g}_m\) is a real form of a simple complex Lie algebra) or a sum of a conformal symmetry and the image of a conformal symmetry under \(J_m\) (in the case when \(\mathfrak{g}_m\) is a realification of a simple complex Lie algebra with the complex structure \(J_m\)).