String Theory Journal Club

We summarize the recent progress on the new democratic formulation of p-form dynamics, where p-forms and their dual (d-p-2)-forms are equal fundamental variables in d-dimensional spaces of Lorentzian signature. This formulation provides a simple Lorentz-invariant action for selfdual (chiral) p-forms in 2p+2 dimensions, with arbitrary abelian (self-)interactions. We provide a democratic formulation of non-linear electrodynamics (NED) in 3+1 dimensions, including arbitrary electric-magnetic duality-symmetric NED where both Lorentz and duality symmetry are manifest off-shell symmetries. We also illustrate a simple derivation for these actions from a topological theory in one higher dimension due to Arvanitakis et al and its generalization to arbitrary dimensions/forms. Applications of this method include democratic actions for type II 10d Supergravities and 11d Supergravity.