No abstract

We give the complete list of all first-order consistent interaction vertices for a set of exterior form gauge fields of form degree >1, described in the free limit by the standard Maxwell-like action. A special attention is paid to the interactions that deform the gauge transformations. These are shown to be necessarily of the Noether form "conserved antisymmetric tensor" times "p-form potential" and exist only in particular spacetime dimensions. Conditions for consistency to all orders in the coupling constant are given. For illustrative purposes, the analysis is carried out explicitly for a system of forms with two different degrees p and q (1

Turbulent fluctuations in magnetohydrodynamic flows are known to become anisotropic under the action of a sufficiently strong magnetic field. We investigate this phenomenon in the case of low magnetic Reynolds number using direct numerical simulations and large eddy simulations of a forced flow in a periodic box. A series of simulations is performed with different strengths of the magnetic field, varying Reynolds number, and two types of forcing, one of which is isotropic and the other limited to two-dimensional flow modes. We find that both the velocity anisotropy ͑difference in the relative amplitude of the velocity components͒ and the anisotropy of the velocity gradients are predominantly determined by the value of the magnetic interaction parameter. The effects of the Reynolds number and the type of forcing are much weaker. We also find that the anisotropy varies only slightly with the length scale.

The characteristic cohomology H k char (d) for an arbitrary set of free p-form gauge fields is explicitly worked out in all form degrees k < n − 1, where n is the spacetime dimension. It is shown that this cohomology is finite-dimensional and completely generated by the forms dual to the field strengths. The gauge invariant characteristic cohomology is also computed. The results are extended to interacting p-form gauge theories with gauge invariant interactions. Implications for the BRST cohomology are mentioned.