Einstein–Yang–Mills theory: gauge invariant charges and linearization instability

We construct the gauge-invariant electric and magnetic charges in Yang–Mills theory coupled to cosmological general relativity (or any other geometric gravity), extending the flat spacetime construction of Abbott and Deser (Phys Lett B 116:259–263, 1982). For non-vanishing background gauge fields, the charges receive non-trivial contribution from the gravity part. In addition, we study the constraints on the first order perturbation theory and establish the conditions for linearization instability: that is the validity of the first order perturbation theory.