title: Yang-Mills as massive Chern-Simons theory: a third way to three-dimensional gauge theories.
abstract: The Yang-Mills (YM) equation in three spacetime dimensions (3D) can be modified to include a novel parity-preserving interaction term, with an inverse mass parameter, in addition to a possible topological mass term. The novelty is that the modified YM equation is not the Euler-Lagrange equation of any gauge-invariant local action for the YM gauge potential alone. Instead, consistency is achieved in the "third way" exploited by 3D minimal massive gravity. We relate our results to the "novel Higgs mechanism" for Chern-Simons gauge theories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alex S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Arvanitakis
authors.affiliation: Theoretische Natuurkunde, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and The International Solvay Institutes, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium and Physics Department, Universiteit Antwerpen, Campus Groenenborger, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sevrin
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Paul K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Townsend