# nLab Yang-Mills instanton

Contents

### Context

#### $\infty$-Chern-Weil theory

∞-Chern-Weil theory

∞-Chern-Simons theory

∞-Wess-Zumino-Witten theory

# Contents

## Idea

In $SU(n)$-Yang-Mills theory an instanton is a field configuration with non-vanishing second Chern class that minimizes the Yang-Mills energy.

## Definition

Let $(X,g)$ be a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension 4. Let $G$ be a compact Lie group.

A field configuration of $G$-Yang-Mills theory on $(X,g)$ is a $G$-principal bundle $P \to X$ with connection $\nabla$.

For $G = SU(n)$ the special unitary group, there is canonically an associated complex vector bundle $E = P \times_G \mathbb{C}^n$.

Write $F_\nabla \in \Omega^2(X,End(E))$ for the curvature 2-form of $\nabla$.

One says that $\nabla$ is an instanton configuration if $F_\nabla$ is Hodge-self dual

$\star F_\nabla = - F_\nabla \,,$

where $\star : \Omega^k(X) \to \Omega^{4-k}(X)$ is the Hodge star operator induced by the Riemannian metric $g$.

The second Chern class of $P$, which by the Chern-Weil homomorphism is given by

$c_2(E) = \int_X Tr(F_\nabla \wedge F_\nabla) = k \in H^4(X, \mathbb{Z})$

is called the instanton number or the instanton sector of $\nabla$.

Notice that therefore any connection, even if not self-dual, is in some instanton sector, as its underlying bundle has some second Chern class, meaning that it can be obtained from shifting a self-dual connection. The self-dual connections are a convenient choice of “base point” in each instanton sector.

## Examples

### $SU(2)$-instantons from the correct maths to the traditional physics story

The traditional story in the physics textbooks (copied endlessly from one textbook to the next, over generations) of $SU(2)$-instantons (BPTS instantons) tends to fail to highlight some key global points, without which the whole construction really collapses. The following text means to explain the correct description (using the mathematics of Cech cohomology cocycles via clutching construction on one-point compactification of Minkowski spacetime) but presented and phrased such that the folklore physics story becomes fully visible – including its crucial fix.

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Instantons

For $G$ any gauge group (a Lie group) then a $G$-Yang-Mills instanton on some 4-dimensional spacetime (a pseudo-Riemannian manifold) $X$ is a $G$-principal bundle on $X$ (this is going to be the “instanton sector”), equipped with a $G$-principal connection $\nabla$ (this is the actual gauge field) such that this is self-dual, in that its curvature form $F_\nabla$ satisfies $F_\nabla = \star F_{\nabla}$, where $\star$ denotes the Hodge star operator for the given metric (field of gravity).

A standard theorem says that there is precisely one self-dual principal connection $\nabla$ on every isomorphism class of $SU(2)$-principal bundles. Therefore classifying and counting instantons amounts to classifying and counting $G$-principal bundles.

This is what makes instantons a “topological” structure in the parlance of physics, meaning that they do not depend on Riemannian metric information, after all.

We now take the spacetime to be Minkowski spacetime $\mathbb{R}^{3,1}$ and the gauge group to be the special unitary group $SU(2)$. This is the case of “BPTS-instantons”. Of course other choices are possible and may lead to richer situations, but this simple case is what the physics textbooks tend to focus on (not the least of course because these choices are relevant for phenomenology of the weak nuclear force as seen in accelerator experiments) and it already serves to highlight key points. Since, as we just said, we may disregard all metric properties, this means now that we regard spacetime to be just the Cartesian space $\mathbb{R}^4$.

Or almost. At this point one needs to be careful with the boundary conditions in order to get the topology right.

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Vanishing at infinity

The physical energy condition on an instanton is that the field strength $F_\nabla$ vanishes “at infinity”. Mathematically, a continuous function on a locally compact topological space $X$ vanishes at infinity precisely if it extends to the “one-point compactification$X^+ \coloneqq X \cup \{\infty\}$ of $X$ – where we literally adjoin the “point at infinity” “$\infty$” and glue it to $X$ by defining a suitable topology on $X \cup \{\infty\}$.

Hence we may formalize the boundary condition by saying that our $SU(2)$-principal connection actually exists on the one-point compactification of $\mathbb{R}^4$. This is the 4-sphere

$S^4 \simeq \mathbb{R}^4 \cup \{\infty\} \,.$

It is this passage from $\mathbb{R}^4$ to $S^4$ which takes care of the subtleties that often tend to be glossed over.

With the boundary conditions “at infinity” taken care of this way, an $SU(2)$-instanton now is the isomorphism class of an $SU(2)$-principal bundle on the 4-sphere $S^4$.

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Instanton number

There is a classifying space for $SU(2)$-principal bundles, denoted $B SU(2)$. This being a classifying space means that for $X$ any paracompact topological space, then the isomorphism classes of $SU(2)$-principal bundles on $X$ are in bijection with homotopy classes of continuous functions from $X$ to $B SU(2)$.

$\{X \to B SU(2)\}_{/homotopy} \;\simeq\; \{ SU(2)\text{-principal bundles}\}_{/\text{gauge tranformations}} \,.$

Now for $X = S^4$, then

$\{S^4 \to B SU(2)\}_{/homotopy} \simeq \pi_4(B SU(2)) \simeq \mathbb{Z}$

is the 4th homotopy group of the classifying space $B SU(2)$.

This is an integer, and so this integer labels isomorphism classes of instantons on $S^4$ (hence on $\mathbb{R}^4$). We see below that Chern-Weil theory identifies this number with the instanton number.

But this counting of instantons works more generally, if we use a suitable counting function. First of all, there is a topological space whose only homotopy group is $\pi_4$, and such that this is the group of integers. This is the Eilenberg-MacLane space $K(\mathbb{Z},4)$:

$\{S^4 \to K(\mathbb{Z},4)\}_{/homotopy} \simeq \mathbb{Z} \;\;\;\;\; \text{and} \;\;\;\;\; \{S^{d\neq 4} \to K(\mathbb{Z},4)\}_{/homotopy} \simeq 0 \,.$

This space has the following remarkable property: homotopy classes of continuous functions into it compute ordinary cohomology with integer coefficients:

$\left\{ X \longrightarrow K(\mathbb{Z},4) \right\}_{/homotopy} \;\simeq\; H^4(X,\mathbb{Z}) \,.$

Now there is a continuous function

$c_2 \;\colon\; B SU(2) \longrightarrow K(\mathbb{Z},4)$

called the universal second Chern class. This hence sends $SU(2)$-principal bundles, classified by some map

$\chi \;\colon\; X \longrightarrow B SU(2)$

to classes in degree-4 cohomology

$c_2(\chi) \;\colon\; X \longrightarrow B SU(2) \overset{c_2}{\longrightarrow} K(\mathbb{Z},4) \,.$

This cohomology class

$c_2(\chi) \in H^4(X,\mathbb{Z})$

is hence called the second Chern class of the $SU(2)$-principal bundle.

This is one in a whole sequence of characteristic classes which are carried by $SU(2)$-principal bundles, the Chern classes.

But in the special case that the base space $X$ is 4-dimensional, then only a single one of these classes may be non-trivial, namely the second Chern class $c_2$. Therefore this class completely characterizes $SU(2)$-principal bundles in 4d.

In conclusion: Where an BPTS-instanton is manifested by an SU(2)-principal bundle of a 4-dimensional manifold, the instanton number is the second Chern class of this bundle.

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Constructing instantons from gauge transformations

We may construct the bundles that are classified this way explicitly by using Cech cohomology. This says that we get such a bundle by

1. choosing an open cover $\{U_i \to X\}$ of $X$ (by “charts”)

2. choosing transition functions $g_{i j} \colon U_i \cap U_j \to SU(2)$ on each double overlap of two charts

3. such that on triple overlaps the cocycle condition $g_{i j} \cdot g_{j k} = g_{i k}$ holds.

Now comes the major fact which gives makes this general theory look like the structures that appear in the physics books: the clutching construction.

Namely, for general $X$ one needs the charts $\{U_i \to X\}$ to form a good open cover in order to guarantee that all isomorphism classes of gauge bundles are captured by the construction via transition functions.

But the clutching construction says that whenever $X$ happens to be a sphere, then it is sufficient to cover it by two hemispheres that overlap a little:

$U_+ \coloneqq \text{upper hemisphere with a little rim}$


U_- \coloneqq \text{lower hemisphere with a little rim} \,.

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But since everything is topological now, it doesn’t matter that these charts are literally hemi-spheres in the metric sense. In order to get the standard picture we instead make $U_+$ maximally large and take it to cover all of $S^4$ except the “north pole” (which is really the “point at infinity”, due to the one-point compactification above), while we take $U_-$ to be a tiny open neighbourhood of that point, sitting there as a tiny ice cap around the north pole. So

$U_+ \coloneqq S^4 - \{\text{point at infinity}\}$


U_- \coloneqq \text{tiny neighbourhood of the point at infinity} \,.

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Topologically this is homeomorphic to the situation before, and hence just as good.

So now back to the general prescription of building principal bundles via Cech cohomology, we are to choose transition functions on all overlaps of charts. But thanks to the clutching construction, there is now just a single such overlap, namely

$U_+ \cap U_- = \text{tiny annulus around the point at infinity} \,.$

Moreover there is no non-trivial triple overlap, hence no cocycle condition that our transition function is to satisfy.

In conclusion, Cech cohomology and the clutching construction jointly now say that $SU(2)$-instantons are classified by maps

$U_+ \cap U_- \longrightarrow SU(2)$

But notice that that the intersection of two hemi-4-spheres that overlap slightly is just a 3-sphere times a slight thickening:

$U_+ \cap U_- \simeq S^3 \times \{-\epsilon, \epsilon\} \,.$

Moreover, the thickening direction here is trivial, and so one finds that instantons are classified by homotopy classes of maps

$g \;\colon\; S^3 \longrightarrow SU(2)$

This is where this “gauge transformation at infinity” in the physics textbooks really comes from. The key point here is that it is indeed gauge transforming, namely the restriction of our bundle to $U_+$ to its restriction to the “neighbourhood of infinity” $U_-$.

But as topological spaces $SU(2) \simeq S^3$ and so

$\{ U_+ \cap U_- \to SU(2) \}_{/homotopy} \simeq \pi_3(S^3) \simeq \mathbb{Z} \,.$

So we get the same classification from Cech cohomology that we got from classifying space theory, as it must be. But now we know how that second Chern class may be concretely embodied in that “gauge transformation at infinity”.

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Gauge fields vanishing at infinity

Now we bring in connections. As discussed before, we may just as well consider any principal connection. In the Cech cohomology picture and still using the clutching construction this now means to choose

1. $\mathfrak{su}(2)$-valued 1-forms $A_{\pm}$ on $U_\pm$

2. such that on the tiny intersection of the two charts at infinity we have

$A_- = g A_* g^{-1} + g d g^{-1}$

Now observe that in the given situation of using the clutching construction on a sphere, then we may always choose

$A_- = 0 \,.$

Because then the above just says that $A_+$ on $U_+$ becomes gauge trivial “at infinity”, by the given gauge transformation $g \colon S^3 \to SU(2)$ (the one whose winding number counts our instantons).

(In the present case this is really simple, but also generally there is a partition of unity-argument to construct connections on any bundle in generalization of this simple situation, see here.)

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Counting instantons by integrating $tr(F_\nabla \wedge F_\nabla)$

So far we have derived the physics picture of an instanton: An $SU(2)$-gauge field which becomes gauge trivial “at infinity”, witnessed by a gauge transformation on the “annulus at infinity” $S^3 \to SU(2)$ whose winding number is the instanton number. But the key point is that we see that the little neighbourhood of infinity $U_-$ is part of the picture, and that is necessary now to understand the Chern 4-form.

Namely to every $\mathfrak{su}(2)$-valued 1-form $A$ we may assign the ordinary (abelian) 4-form

$\langle F_A \wedge F_A\rangle \coloneqq tr(F_A \wedge F_A) \,,$

where $F_A$ is the curvature form of $A$.

Now a general fact of Chern-Weil theory is that the 4-form built this way from a single $A$ is always exact, a potential is given by the Chern-Simons form $CS(A)$:

$d CS(A) = \langle F_A \wedge F_A\rangle \,.$

But beware now this is only true on a single chart. And just because our chart $U_+$ covers “everything except infinity”, we must not forget that there is a second chart $U_-$, the “neighbourhood of infinity”.

Namely the 4-form $\langle F_\nabla \wedge F_\nabla\rangle$ that is defined on the whole of the 4-sphere $S^4$, this 4-form is only locally exact (as every closed 4-form is, by the Poincare lemma). Generally, we define it chart-wise by

$\langle F_{\nabla} \wedge F_\nabla \rangle |_{U_+} \coloneqq \langle F_{A_+} \wedge F_{A_+}\rangle$

and

$\langle F_{\nabla} \wedge F_\nabla \rangle |_{U_-} \coloneqq \langle F_{A_-} \wedge F_{A_-}\rangle \,.$

This does indeed give a globally defined 4-form, no matter what the local connection forms $A_{\pm}$ are, as long as they satisfy the required condition that they are related by a gauge transformation on the overlap $U_+ \cap U_-$. Because the 4-form is gauge invariant.

So the 4-form thus defined

$\langle F_{\nabla} \wedge F_{\nabla} \rangle \in \Omega^4_{cl}(S^4)$

has

1. a potential 3-form $CS(A_+)$ when restricted to $U_+$;

2. a potential 3-form $CS(A_-)$ when restricted to $U_-$;

but it does not have a potential 3-form on all of $S^4$, unless the instanton number vanishes.

Put this way this should be very obvious now. But it is easy to get confused about this due to the sheer convenience of the clutching construction used above: we actually were allowed to choose $A_- = 0$!

This might make it superficially look like there is only a single local gauge potential $A_+$ around, and that the 4-form is locally exact. But this is not the case: there are two local gauge potentials on two different charts, and just because one of them happens to be equal to zero still does not mean that the extension of the 4-form to all of the 4-sphere has a global potential. It has a potential $CS(A_+)$ only after restricting it to $U_+$, even if this means “only removing the point at infinity”.

With thus understood that $\langle F_\nabla \wedge F_\nabla\rangle$ is not globally exact, it becomes believable that the integral

$\int_{S^4} \langle F_\nabla \wedge F_\nabla\rangle \;\in\; \mathbb{N}$

is generally non-vanishing, and is in fact yet another incarnation of the same integer that we had before, the instanton number. That this is so is given to us by Chern-Weil theory.

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Outlook: Chern-Simons 2-Gerbes

In fact the full story is nicer still. Namely the local Chern-Simons 3-forms $CS(A_\pm)$ together with the gauge transformation at infinity form a Cech cohomology cocycle for a circle 3-bundle with connection (a bundle 2-gerbe). This is the Chern-Simons 2-gerbe of the gauge field. And the fourth incarnation of the instanton number is: the Dixmier-Douady class of this 2-gerbe

## Properties

### As gradient flows between flat connections.

We discuss how Yang-Mills instantons may be understood as trajectories of the gradient flow of the Chern-Simons theory action functional.

Let $(\Sigma,g_\Sigma)$ be a compact 3-dimensional Riemannian manifold .

Let the cartesian product

$X = \Sigma \times \mathbb{R}$

of $\Sigma$ with the real line be equipped with the product metric of $g$ with the canonical metric on $\mathbb{R}$.

Consider field configurations $\nabla$ of Yang-Mills theory over $\Sigma \times \mathbb{R}$ with finite Yang-Mills action

$S_{YM}(\nabla) = \int_{\Sigma \times \mathbb{R}} F_\nabla \wedge \star F_\nabla \,\,\lt \infty \,.$

These must be such that there is $t_1 \lt t_2 \in \mathbb{R}$ such that $F_\nabla(t \lt t_1) = 0$ and $F_\nabla(T \gt t_2) = 0$, hence these must be solutions interpolating between two flat connections $\nabla_{t_1}$ and $\nabla_{t_2}$.

For $A \in \Omega^1(U\times \mathbb{R}, \mathfrak{g})$ the Lie algebra valued 1-form corresponding to $\nabla$, we can always find a gauge transformation such that $A_{\partial_t} = 0$ (“temporal gauge”). In this gauge we may hence equivalently think of $A$ as a 1-parameter family

$t \mapsto A(t) \in \Omega^1(\Sigma, \mathfrak{g})$

of connections on $\Sigma$. Then the self-duality condition on a Yang-Mills instanton

$F_\nabla = - \star F_\nabla$

$\frac{d}{d t} A = -\star_{g} F_A \,\,\, \in \Omega^1(\Sigma, \mathfrak{g}) \,.$
###### Definition

On the linear configuration space $\Omega^1(\Sigma, \mathfrak{g})$ of Lie algebra valued forms on $\Sigma$ define the Hodge inner product metric

$G(\alpha, \beta) := \int_{\Sigma} \langle \alpha \wedge \star_g \beta \rangle \,,$

where $\langle-,-\rangle : \mathfrak{g} \otimes \mathfrak{g} \to \mathbb{R}$ is the Killing form invariant polynomial on the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$.

###### Proposition

The instanton equation

$\frac{d}{d t} A = -\star_{g} F_A$

is the equation characterizing trajectories of the gradient flow of the Chern-Simons action functional

$S_{CS} : \Omega^1(\Sigma, \mathfrak{g}) \to \mathbb{R}$
$A \mapsto \int_\Sigma CS(A)$

with respect to the Hodge inner product metric on $\Omega^1(\Sigma,\mathfrak{g})$.

###### Proof

The variation of the Chern-Simons action is

$\delta S_{CS}(A) = \int_\Sigma \langle \delta A \wedge F_A\rangle$

(see Chern-Simons theory for details).

In other words, we have the 1-form on $\Omega^1(\Sigma,\mathfrak{g})$:

$\delta S_{CS}(-)_A = \int_\Sigma \langle - \wedge F_A \rangle \,.$

$\nabla S_{CS} := G^{-1} \delta S_{CS}$

is uniquely defined by the equation

\begin{aligned} \delta S_{CS}(-) & = G(-,\nabla S_{CS}) \\ \int_\Sigma \langle - , \star \nabla S_{CS}\rangle \end{aligned} \,.

With the formula (see Hodge star operator)

$\star \star A = (-1)^{1(3+1)} A = A$

we find therefore

$\nabla S_{CS} = \star_g F_A \,.$

$\frac{d}{d t} A + \nabla S_{CS}_A = 0$

is indeed

$\frac{d}{d t} A = - \star_g F_A \,.$

Since flat connections are the critical loci of $S_{CS}$ this says that a finite-action Yang-Mills instanton on $\Sigma \times \mathbb{R}$ is a gradient flow trajectory between two Chern-Simons theory vacua .

Often this is interpreted as saying that “a Yang-Mills instanton describes the tunneling between two Chern-Simons theory vacua”.

## References

Introductions and surveys include

• J. Zinn-Justin, The principles of instanton calculus, Les Houches (1984)

• M.A. Shifman et al., ABC of instantons, Fortschr.Phys. 32,11 (1984) 585

• David Tong, TASI Lectures on Solitons (arXiv:hep-th/0509216), Lecture 1: Instantons (pdf)

A survey in view of the asymptotic nature of the Feynman perturbation series is in

For a fairly comprehensive list of literature see the bibliography of

• Marcus Hutter, Instantons in QCD: Theory and Application of the Instanton Liquid Model (arXiv:hep-ph/0107098)

Detailed argument for the theta-vacuum structure from chiral symmetry breaking is offered in

The multi-instantons in $SU(2)$-Yang-Mills theory (BPTS instantons) were discovered in

• A. A. Belavin, A.M. Polyakov, A.S. Schwartz, Yu.S. Tyupkin, Pseudoparticle solutions of the Yang-Mills equations, Phys. Lett. B 59 (1), 85-87 (1975) doi

• A. A. Belavin, V.A. Fateev, A.S. Schwarz, Yu.S. Tyupkin, Quantum fluctuations of multi-instanton solutions, Phys. Lett. B 83 (3-4), 317-320 (1979) doi

• Michael Atiyah, Nigel Hitchin, J. M. Singer, Deformations of instantons, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S. 74, 2662 (1977)

• Edward Witten, Some comments on the recent twistor space constructions, Complex manifold techniques in theoretical physics (Proc. Workshop, Lawrence, Kan., 1978), pp. 207–218, Res. Notes in Math., 32, Pitman, Boston, Mass.-London, 1979.

Methods of algebraic geometry were introduced in

• M. F. Atiyah, R. S. Ward, Instantons and algebraic geometry, Comm. Math. Phys. 55, n. 2 (1977), 117-124, MR0494098, euclid

The more general ADHM construction in terms of linear algebra of vector bundles on projective varieties is proposed in

• M.F. Atiyah, N.J. Hitchin, V.G. Drinfeld, Yu.I. Manin, Construction of instantons, Physics Letters 65 A, 3, 185–187 (1978) pdf

Monographs with the standard material include

• Dan Freed, Karen Uhlenbeck, Instantons and four-manifolds, Springer-Verlag, (1991)

• Robbert Dijkgraaf, Topological gauge theories and group cohomology (ps)

• Nicholas Manton, Paul M. Sutcliffe, Topological solitons, Cambridge Monographs on Math. Physics, gBooks

Yang-Mills instantons on spaces other than just spheres are explicitly discussed in

• Gabor Kunstatter, Yang-mills theory in a multiply connected three space, Mathematical Problems in Theoretical Physics: Proceedings of the VIth International Conference on Mathematical Physics Berlin (West), August 11-20,1981. Editor: R. Schrader, R. Seiler, D. A. Uhlenbrock, Lecture Notes in Physics, vol. 153, p.118-122 (web)

based on

In

• Henrique N. Sá Earp, Instantons on $G_2$−manifolds PhD thesis (2009) (pdf)

is a discussion of Yang-Mills instantons on a 7-dimensional manifold with special holonomy.

Last revised on January 3, 2018 at 16:09:42. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.