Padmanabhan's Boundary Variational Principle for Electrodynamics and Yang-Mills Theory

Abstract: In this note, we revisit a variational principle introduced by Padmanabhan for describing gravitation using a field action composed solely of a boundary term. We demonstrate that this procedure can also be applied to derive Maxwell's and Yang-Mills equations. Additionally, we find that in this boundary approach, $\mathcal{CP}$-violating dual couplings and spontaneous symmetry breaking through gauge boson masses can emerge in a manner analogous to how the cosmological constant appears in the original gravitational context.