  Quantum Electrodynamics can be formulated as the theory of an antisymmetric
tensor gauge field. In this formulation the topological current of this field
appears as an additional source for the electromagnetic field. The topological
charge therefore acts physically as an electric charge. The topologically
nontrivial, electrically charged sector contains massless quantum states
orthogonal to the vacuum in spite of the absence of classical topological
solutions. These states are created by a gauge invariant local operator and can
be interpreted as coherent states of photons. The obtainment of a quantity like
charge, which is usually associated with matter, as a property of some peculiar
states of the gauge field points towards the possibility of describing both the
matter and the fields which mediate its interactions within the same unified
framework.
