FIELD-STRENGTH FORMULATION OF SU(2) YANG-MILLS THEORY IN THE MAXIMAL ABELIAN GAUGE - PERTURBATION-THEORY

We present a reformulation of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in the maximal A belian gauge, where the non-Abelian gauge held components are exactly integrated out at the expense of a new Abelian tensor held. The latter can be treated in a semiclassical approximation and the corresponding saddle point equation is derived. Besides the nontrivial solutions, w hich are presumably related to nonperturbative interactions for the Ab elian gauge field, the equation of motion for the tensor fields allows for a trivial solution as well. We show that the semiclassical expans ion around this trivial solution is equivalent to the standard perturb ation theory. In particular, we calculate the one-loop beta-function f or the running coupling constant in this approach and reproduce the st andard result.