What is the action for an electromagnetic field if including magnetic charge Recently, I try to write an action of an electromagnetic field with magnetic charge and quantize it. But it seems not as easy as it seems to be. Does anyone know anything or think of anything like this?
 A: In the usual formulation, where we have Maxwell's equations $$\partial_{\nu}F^{\mu\nu}=j^\mu $$ $$\partial_{\nu}*F^{\mu\nu}=0 $$ a scenario with magnetic charge is included by making the potential pure gauge at infinity, but with a non zero winding number. (Dirac monopole)
So this modelling of magnetic charge is a global property, rather than a local one.
If you now try, instead, to do it locally by modifying the second equation above to have a magnetic current on the RHS, then the equation, which normally expresses the fact that $F$ is a closed two form, now no longer has this interpretation.  If $F$ is not closed, then it's no longer the derivative of a potential, so the usual incorporation of EM into electrodyamics using the minimal coupling prescription $$ \partial_{\mu} \rightarrow \partial_{\mu}-ieA_{\mu}$$ doesn't work.  For this reason I'd say it's not possible to do it using the normal gauge theory approach.
Edit: after reading Lubos' comment, I should maybe add the caveat "not possible to do it using the conventional U(1) QED gauge theory in four dimensions"
Edit2: there are apparently also approaches involving two potentials, discussed here and here, but I'm not sure that the proliferation of degrees of freedom is a good thing!
