A NONASSOCIATIVE DEFORMATION OF YANG-MILLS GAUGE-THEORY

An ansatz is presented for a possible non-associative deformation of t he standard Yang-Mills type gauge theories. An explicit algebraic stru cture for the deformed gauge symmetry is put forward and the resulting gauge theory developed. The non-associative deformation is constructe d in such a way that an apparently associative Lie algebraic structure is retained module a closure problem for the generators. It is this f ailure to close which leads to new physics in the model as manifest in the gauge held kinetic term in the resulting Lagrangian. A possible c onnection between this model and quantum group gauge theories is also investigated. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.