Classical and quantum dynamics of the Faraday lines of force

We study the vacuum Maxwell theory by expressing the electric field in terms of its Faraday lines of force. This representation allows us to capture the two physical degrees of freedom of the electric field by means of two scalar fields. The corresponding classical canonical theory is constructed in terms of four scalar fields, is fully gauge invariant, has an attractive kinematics, but a rather complicated dynamics. The corresponding quantum theory can be constructed in a well-defined functional representation, which we refer to as the Euler representation. This representation turns out to be related to the loop representation. The resulting quantization scheme is, perhaps, of relevance for non-Abelian theories and for gravity.