Loop groups and Yang-Mills theory in dimension two (Q915212)

Given a connection in a principal G bundle over the circle, parallel transport around the circle gives rise to the holonomy, essentially an element of G. Similarly for a connection \(\omega\) in a G bundle over the sphere, parallel transport along lines of longitude from one pole to the other gives an element of G for each line of longitude. This defines a loop in G or an element \(\gamma\) of the loop group LG. The author shows that up to gauge equivalence the connection \(\omega\) is determined by this \(\gamma\) and a map f: \(S^ 2\to LG\) from the two sphere to the Lie algebra of G. Moreover the Yang-Mills functional for the connection is the sum of the energy of the loop and a certain inner product applied to f. In particular this shows that the Morse theory of the Yang-Mills functional is the same as the Morse theory of the energy functional on the loop group. The case of a principal bundle over a Riemann surface is also investigated.