Classical connection between the Wess-Zumino-Witten-Novikov model and topological gauge theories with boundaries - art. no. 026005

It is shown, at the level of the classical action, that the Wess-Zumino-Wit ten-Novikov model is equivalent to a combined BF theory and a Chern-Simons action in the presence of a unique boundary term. This connection relies on the techniques of non-Abelian T duality in non-linear sigma models. We der ive some consistency conditions whose various solutions lead to different d ual theories. Particular attention is paid to the cases of the Lie algebras SO(2,1) and SO(2,1) x SO(2,1) and their gravitational interpretation is di scussed.