No label defined (Q4523939)

The paper consists of a sequence of interesting lectures with the aim of emphasizing the topological aspects of classical gauge theory. Firstly, the author points out the basic mathematical data, as semi-Riemannian manifolds, Lie groups, principal bundles, connections, Yang-Mills equations, which are all necessary to describe the interaction of a particle with a gauge field. Then, he gives several examples beginning with Dirac monopoles whose magnetic charge is encoded, actually as Chern number, in the topology of the \(U(1)\)-bundle over \(S^2\) on which the monopole lives as a connection. In the second situation, taking account of dynamics, the base manifold \(X\) of a bundle is a spacetime or an open submanifold of a Minkowski spacetime and there is a description of the interaction of a charged spin zero particle with an electromagnetic field modeled by a connection on a principal \(U(1)\)-bundle over \(X\). Instantons are considered and examples of BRST-instantons (as finite action anti-self-dual potentials \(A\) on \(\mathbb{R}^4)\) are obtained via a natural connection on the quaternionic Hopf bundle \(Sp(1)\to S^7\to HP^1\). Their Yang-Mills action is finite and equal to \(8\pi^2\) and is related to the second Chern number of the bundle over \(S^4\) to which \(A\) extends by Uhlenbeck's theorem. As one of the effects on low-dimensional topology due to the differential equations arising in the gauge theory, the author presents a sketch of the proof of the Donaldson theorem on the standard nature of the intersection form of a compact, oriented, simply connected 4-manifold [\textit{S. K. Donaldson}, J. Differ. Geom. 18, 279--315 (1983; Zbl 0507.57010)]. Finally, Seiberg-Witten equations [\textit{N. Seiberg} and \textit{E. Witten}, Nucl. Phys. B 431, 484--550 (1994; Zbl 1020.81911)] are considered together with a Witten result concerning the non-existence of finite energy solutions on flat \(\mathbb{R}^4\). The paper ends with two appendices on the Dirac quantization condition and on the first and second Chern classes. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0944.00047].