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Do all continuous gauge theories use Lie groups?

Physics Asked on November 6, 2021

The article about gauge theory on Wikipedia contains the sentence "Lie group". How can we prove that the gauge transformations that are given in an article form a Lie group?
I give you an example. Consider time reparametrisation. $t$ is replaced by $tau$ and $x$ by $x’$ with
$$x'(tau) = x(t)$$ so we have a set of functions $tau$ acting on $x$. if
they are monotone they have an inverse there is associativity in the composition law, and an identity. So we have a group. But the word Lie does not even appear. How can we prove that this a Lie group?

One Answer

Many mathematical texts (and Wikipedia) often assume that Lie groups are finite-dimensional differential manifolds. Yang-Mills theories and Chern-Simons theories are based on such Lie Groups. However, in physics, gauge theories are sometimes governed by (infinite-dimensional) Lie groupoids. See also this related Phys.SE post.

Answered by Qmechanic on November 6, 2021

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