Spontaneous compactification of D=5 two-form gauge fields and the obtainment of Maxwell and Yang-Mills theories

We show that the spontaneous compactification of the Abelian and non-Abelian two-form gauge field theories from D=4+1 to D=3+1 leads to the same theories plus the Maxwell and Yang-Mills ones, respectively. The vector potential comes from the zero mode of the fifth component of the tensor gauge field in D=5. Concerning the non-Abelian case, it is necessary to make a more refined definition of the three-form stress tensor in order to be compatible, after the compactification, with the two-form stress tensor of the Yang-Mills theory. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0022-2488(00)02210-6].