A gauge and diffeomorphism invariant theory in (2+1)-dimensions is presented in both first and second order Lagrangian form as well as in a Hamiltonian form. For gauge group SO(1, 2), the theory is shown to describe ordinary Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant. With gauge group G = SO(1, 2) ⊗ G , it is shown that the equations of motion for the G fields are the Yang-Mills equations. I...

We study topological Yang-Mills-Higgs theories in two and three dimensions and topological Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions in a unified framework of superconnections. In this framework, we first show that a classical action of topological Yang-Mills type can provide all three classical actions of these theories via appropriate projections. Then we obtain the BRST and anti-BRST transformati...

We develop a new method to obtain stochastic characterizations of Yang–Mills elds. Our main tool is the Itô-equation for the stochastic parallel transport. We estimate the drift terms in a small ball of radius and nd that for a general connection the average rotation is of order 3 but that for a Yang–Mills connections the average rotation is of order . Using a Doob h-transform we give a new pro...

The question of the role of the center of the gauge group in the phenomenon of confinement in Yang-Mills theory is addressed. The investigation is performed from the most general perspective of considering all possible choices for the gauge symmetry group. In this context, an interesting role is played by G(2) Yang-Mills theory: the simplest pure gauge theory with a trivial center and without ’...