Structure of the solution space of Witten's gauge-field equations (Q2266507)

The author considers the following system of gauge fields in eight- dimensional space: \[ [\nabla y_{\mu},\nabla y_{\nu}]=\epsilon_{\mu \nu \alpha \beta}[\nabla y_{\alpha},\nabla y_{\beta}],\quad \mu,\nu =0,1,2,3, \] \[ [\nabla z_{\mu},\nabla z_{\nu}]=(-)\epsilon_{\mu \nu \alpha \beta}[\nabla z_{\alpha},\nabla z_{\beta}],\quad [\nabla y_{\mu},\nabla z_{\nu}]=0 \] where \((y,z)=(y_ 0,y_ 1,y_ 2,y_ 3,z_ 0,z_ 1,z_ 2,z_ 3)\in {\mathbb{C}}^ 8\), \(\nabla y_{\mu}\) etc. are covariant derivatives. This system as was pointed out by \textit{E. Witten} [Phys. Lett., B 77, 394 (1978)] is equivalent to the Yang-Mills equations: \([\nabla x_{\mu},[\nabla x_{\mu},\nabla x_{\nu}]]=0\) as some additional conditions are fullfilled. The author has solved an initial-value problem of the system. Using the new method of \textit{M. Sato} [RIMS Kokyuroku 439, 30-46 (1981; Zbl 0507.58029)], he rewrites the system as the system of differential equations with respect to functions with value in an infinite-dimensional Grassmann manifold. Using this results he proves that the trivial extension of (anti) self-dual Yang- Mills field is the unique one up to gauge equivalence.