We show that the Abelian topological mass mechanism in four dimensions, described by the Cremmer-Sherk action, can be obtained from dimensional reduction in five dimensions. Starting from a gauge invariant action in five dimensions, where the dual equivalence between a massless vector field and a massless second-rank antisymmetric field is established, the dimensional reduction is performed keeping only one massive mode.

• Received 8 June 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.59.027702