EXTENDED NON-ABELIAN GAUGE SYMMETRIES IN THE CLASSICAL WZNW MODEL

Higher spin extensions of the non-Abelian gauge symmetries for the cla ssical WZNW model are considered. Both linear and nonlinear realizatio ns of the extended affine Kac-Moody algebra are obtained. It is a char acteristic property of the WZNW model that it admits a higher spin lin ear realization of the extended affine Kac-Moody algebra which is equi valent to the corresponding higher spin nonlinear realization of the s ame algebra. However, in both cases, the higher spin Noether currents do not span an invariant space with respect to their generating transf ormations. Here, the current space is extended to an invariant space w hich allows us to gauge the symmetry.