The covariant Poisson equation for Lie algebra -valued mappings defined on R 3 is studied using functional analytic methods. Weighted covariant Sobolev spaces are defined and used to derive sufficient conditions for the existence and smoothness of solutions to the covariant Poisson equation. These conditions require, apart from suitable continuity, appropriate local L p integrability of the gauge potentials and global weighted L p integrability of the curvature form and the source. The possibility of nontrivial asymptotic behaviour of a solution is also considered. As a by-product, weighted covariant generalisations of Sobolev embeddings are established.

Starting from the temporal gauge Hamiltonian for classical pure Yang-Mills theory with the gauge group SU(2) a canonical transformation is initiated by parametrising the Gauss law generators with three new canonical variables. The construction of the remaining variables of the new set proceeds through a number of intermediate variables in several steps, which are suggested by the Poisson bracket relations and the gauge transformation properties of these variables. The unconstrained Hamiltonian is obtained from the original one by expressing it in the new variables and then setting the Gauss law generators to zero. This Hamiltonian turns out to be local and it decomposes into a finite Laurent series in powers of the coupling constant.

A generalisation of existing SU(2) results is obtained. In particular, the source-free Gauss law for SU(3)-valued gauge fields is solved using a non-Abelian analogue of the Poincare lemma. When sources are present, the colour-electric field is divided into two parts in a way similar to the Hodge decomposition. Singularities due to coinciding eigenvalues of the colour-magnetic field are also analysed.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX2e; references added, other changes minor; to appear in J. Math. Phy