Duality of self-dual actions Original Research Article

Using examples of a D = 2 chiral scalar and a duality-symmetric formulation of D = 4 Maxwell theory we study duality properties of actions for describing chiral bosons. In particular, in the D = 4 case, upon performing a duality transformation of an auxiliary scalar field, which ensures Lorentz covariance of the action, we arrive at a new covariant duality-symmetric Maxwell action, which contains a two-form potential as an auxiliary field. When the two-form field is gauge fixed this action reduces to a duality-symmetric action for Maxwell theory constructed by Zwanziger. We consider properties of this new covariant action and discuss its coupling to external dyonic sources. We also demonstrate that the formulations considered are self-dual with respect to a dualization of the field strengths of the chiral fields.