Search results for "BRST quantization"
showing 10 items of 18 documents
The electromagnetic group: Bosonic BRST charge
1990
Abstract We give an infinite-dimensional Lie group from which a group approach to quantization (GAQ) derives a Gupta-Bleuler-like quantization for the electromagnetic field. The incorporation into the group law of the gauge transformation properties of Aμ(x), Aμ(x) → Aμ(x) + ∂μφ, requires a non-conventional generator which is related to the BRST charge.
Cohomological analysis of gauged-fixed gauge theories
1999
The relation between the gauge-invariant local BRST cohomology involving the antifields and the gauge-fixed BRST cohomology is clarified. It is shown in particular that the cocycle conditions become equivalent once it is imposed, on the gauge-fixed side, that the BRST cocycles should yield deformations that preserve the nilpotency of the (gauge-fixed) BRST differential. This shows that the restrictions imposed on local counterterms by the Quantum Noether condition in the Epstein--Glaser construction of gauge theories are equivalent to the restrictions imposed by BRST invariance on local counterterms in the standard Lagrangian approach.
Spinor moving frame, M0-brane covariant BRST quantization and intrinsic complexity of the pure spinor approach
2007
To exhibit the possible origin of the inner complexity of the Berkovits's pure spinor approach, we consider the covariant BRST quantization of the D=11 massless superparticle (M0-brane) in its spinor moving frame or twistor-like Lorentz harmonics formulation. The presence of additional twistor-like variables (spinor harmonics) allows us to separate covariantly the first and the second class constraints. After taking into account the second class constraints by means of Dirac brackets and after further reducing the first class constraints algebra, the dynamical system is described by the cohomology of a simple BRST charge associated to the d=1, n=16 supersymmetry algebra. The calculation of …
D=11massless superparticle covariant quantization, pure spinor BRST charge and hidden symmetries
2007
We consider the covariant quantization of the D=11 massless superparticle (M0-brane) in the spinor moving frame or twistor-like Lorentz harmonics formulation. The action involves the set of 16 constrained 32 component Majorana spinors, the spinor Lorentz harmonics parametrizing (as homogeneous coordinates, modulo gauge symmetries) the celestial sphere S9. There presence allows us to separate covariantly the first and the second class constraints of the model. After taking into account the second class constraints by means of Dirac brackets and after further reducing the first class constraints algebra, the system is described in terms of a simple BRST charge associated to the d=1, n=16 supe…
A partial elucidation of the gauge principle
2008
The elucidation of the gauge principle "is the most pressing problem in current philosophy of physics" said Michael Redhead in 2003. This paper argues for two points that contribute to this elucidation in the context of Yang–Mills theories. (1) Yang–Mills theories, including quantum electrodynamics, form a class. They should be interpreted together. To focus on electrodynamics is potentially misleading. (2) The essential role of gauge and BRST symmetries is to provide a local field theory that can be quantized and would be equivalent to the quantization of the non-local reduced theory. If this is correct, the gauge symmetry is significant, not so much because it implies ontological conseque…
Three-dimensional singletons
1990
The three-dimensional analog of singleton gauge theory turns out to be related to the topological gauge theory of Schwartz and Witten. It is a fully-fledged gauge theory, though it involves only a single scalar field. Real, physical degrees of freedom propagate in 3-space, but they are ‘confined’ in the sense that they cannot be detected locally. The physical Hamiltonian density is not zero, but it is concentrated on the boundary at spatial infinity. This boundary surface, a torus, supports a two-dimensional conformal field theory.
Unitarity, Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin symmetry, and Ward identities in orbifold gauge theories
2004
We discuss the use of BRST symmetry and the resulting Ward identities as consistency checks for orbifold gauge theories in an arbitrary number of dimensions. We demonstrate that both the usual orbifold symmetry breaking and the recently proposed Higgsless symmetry breaking are consistent with the nilpotency of the BRST transformation. The corresponding Ward identities for four-point functions of the theory engender relations among the coupling constants that are equivalent to the sum rules from tree level unitarity. We present the complete set of these sum rules also for inelastic scattering and discuss applications to six-dimensional models and to incomplete matter multiplets on orbifold f…
The pinch technique at two loops
1999
It is shown that the fundamental properties of gauge-independence, gauge-invariance, unitarity, and analyticity of the $S$-matrix lead to the unambiguous generalization of the pinch technique algorithm to two loops.
Local BRST cohomology in gauge theories
2000
The general solution of the anomaly consistency condition (Wess-Zumino equation) has been found recently for Yang-Mills gauge theory. The general form of the counterterms arising in the renormalization of gauge invariant operators (Kluberg-Stern and Zuber conjecture) and in gauge theories of the Yang-Mills type with non power counting renormalizable couplings has also been worked out in any number of spacetime dimensions. This Physics Report is devoted to reviewing in a self-contained manner these results and their proofs. This involves computing cohomology groups of the differential introduced by Becchi, Rouet, Stora and Tyutin, with the sources of the BRST variations of the fields ("antif…
Do metric independent classical actions lead to topological field theories?
1991
Abstract We investigate the quantum theory of non-abelian BF -systems (gauge theories with the classical metric independent action ∫ tr BF A ). The fact that due to a complicated (on-shell reducible) gauge structure the quantum action of these theories does not differ only by a BRST commutator from the classical action, and that moreover the BRST operator turns out to be metric dependent, renders the standard arguments for metric independence inapplicable. We establish the topological nature of these models and argue that in gauge theories the information on gauge invariance is contained entirely in the metric independent part of the BRST operator. We make some general remarks on the relati…