STATIC YANG-MILLS FIELDS WITH SOURCES

Yang-Mills theory with a static, c-number external charge density is studied. Time-independent, non-Coulombic solutions are found for a wide variety of sources with arbitrary strength. Their energy as a function of source strength is lower than the Coulomb energy; moreover, the multiplicity of solutions increases when the source strength exceeds a critical magnitude. Intrinsically nonperturbative configurations that satisfy the field equations are presented. The quantal significance of these results is briefly discussed. © 1979 The American Physical Society.