GAUGE FIELDS WITH NONINVARIANT INTERACTIONS

Gauge fields interacting with source fields in a gauge-noninvariant way are examined in a purely classical framework. The existence of conserved currents for the solutions of such theories follows from the properties of the free gauge fields rather than from the usual requirement of global gauge covariance. One of the simplest gauge-noninvariant theories of electromagnetism is shown to be an extension of Dirac's theory of classical clouds of charge. In this extension the clouds exhibit some quantum features. Gauge-noninvariant interactions for Einstein's theory of gravitation are presented in which the properties of the sources are carried by the metric field. In the case of the Yang-Mills field, internal symmetries for a real scalar source field are a consequence of the properties of the gauge field.