Boundary actions and loop groups: a geometric picture of gauge symmetries at null infinity

Abstract

In previous work [1, 2], we proposed an extended phase space structure at null infinity accommodating large gauge symmetries for subn-leading soft theorems in Yang-Mills, via dressing fields arising in the Stueckelberg procedure. Here, we give an explicit boundary action controlling the dynamics of these fields. This allows for a derivation from first principles of the associated charges, together with an explicit renormalization procedure when taking the limit to null and spatial infinity, matching with charges proposed in previous work. Using the language of fibre bundles, we relate the existence of Stueckelberg fields to the notion of extension/reduction of the structure group of a principal bundle, thereby deriving their transformation rules in a natural way, thus realising them as Goldstone-like objects. Finally, this allows us to give a geometric picture of the gauge transformation structure at the boundary, via a loop group coming from formal expansions in the coordinate transversal to the boundary.