Monopoles, gauge fields and de Rham's theorems (Q4259261)

In the first part of the article the classical Dirac monopole is reviewed. In particular, the author argues that, as a consequence of the de Rham theorems, monopoles must occur in pairs of opposite magnetic charge. In the second part of the article a similar argument is given for the more general situation of monopoles in non-Abelian gauge theories. This requires using generalized de Rham theorems for matrix-valued differential forms. The reviewer has to admit that he finds the presentation rather confusing. The author repeatedly applies the Stokes theorem to Euclidean 3-space with a ball (or several balls) removed. To that end it would be necessary to introduce an exterior boundary to get a compact domain of integration, and then to consider the limit of the integral if the exterior boundary is shifted to infinity. In all cases considered, this limit would give a non-vanishing contribution which, however, is constantly ignored by the author.