INSTABILITY OF CONSTANT YANG-MILLS FIELDS

Both a constant (non-Abelian) electric field and a constant magnetic field are solutions to the sourceless Yang-Mills field equations in Minkowski space. We discuss the stability of these solutions under small fluctuations in the potentials. We conclude that a magnetic field B, which is constant over a region of size L, has instabilities which grow exponentially in time provided gBL21. A constant electric field is unstable. A fluctuation in such a field will accelerate continuously in the direction of the field. © 1979 The American Physical Society.