Self-dual Chern-Simons theories

Self-dual Chern-Simons theories form a new class of self-dual gauge theories and provide a field theoretical formulation of anyonic excitations in planar (i.e., two-space-dimensional) systems. Much of the recent attention of these theories is due to the surprising and novel ways in which they differ from the standard Maxwell, or Yang-Mills, gauge theories. These Chern-Simons theories are particular to planar systems and have therefore received added research impetus from recent experimental and theoretical breakthroughs in actual planar condensed-matter systems, such as the quantum Hall effect. This book gives a pedagogical introduction to the basic properties of the "self-dual" Chern-Simons theories, concluding with an overview of more advanced results and an extensive bibliography. Such models possess Bogomol'nyi energy bounds, topological charges, vortex solutions, and supersymmetric extensions, features which are familiar from other well-known self-dual systems such as instantons, monopoles, and vortices. This book is intended mainly for graduate students having some familiarity with gauge theory, but will also be of interest to researchers in related fields.