  We investigate a two-dimensional system of interacting Active Brownian
Particles. Using the Martin-Siggia-Rose-Janssen-de Dominicis formalism, we
built up the generating functional for correlation functions. We study in
detail the hydrodynamic regime with a constant density stationary state. Our
findings reveal that, within a small density fluctuations regime, an emergent
$U(1)$ gauge symmetry arises, originated from the conservation of fluid
vorticity. Consequently, the interaction between the orientational order
parameter and density fluctuations can be cast into a gauge theory, where the
concept of ``electric charge density" aligns with the local vorticity of the
original fluid. We study in detail the case of a microscopic local two-body
interaction. We show that, upon integrating out the gauge fields, the
stationary states of the rotational degrees of freedom satisfy a non-local
Frank free energy for a nematic fluid. We give explicit expressions for the
splay and bend elastic constants as a function of the P\'eclet number (${\rm
Pe}$) and the diffusion interaction constant ($k_d$).
