BRST theory without Hamiltonian and Lagrangian

We consider a generic gauge system, whose physical degrees of freedom are obtained by restriction on a constraint surface followed by factorization with respect to the action of gauge transformations; in so doing, no Hamiltonian structure or action principle is supposed to exist. For such a generic gauge system we construct a consistent BRST formulation, which includes the conventional BV Lagrangian and BFV Hamiltonian schemes as particular cases. If the original manifold carries a weak Poisson structure (a bivector field giving rise to a Poisson bracket on the space of physical observables) the generic gauge system is shown to admit deformation quantization by means of the Kontsevich formality theorem. A sigma-model interpretation of this quantization algorithm is briefly discussed.Comment: 19 pages, minor correction

Volume preserving multidimensional integrable systems and Nambu--Poisson geometry

In this paper we study generalized classes of volume preserving multidimensional integrable systems via Nambu--Poisson mechanics. These integrable systems belong to the same class of dispersionless KP type equation. Hence they bear a close resemblance to the self dual Einstein equation. All these dispersionless KP and dToda type equations can be studied via twistor geometry, by using the method of Gindikin's pencil of two forms. Following this approach we study the twistor construction of our volume preserving systems

BRST analysis of general mechanical systems

We study the groups of local BRST cohomology associated to the general systems of ordinary differential equations, not necessarily Lagrangian or Hamiltonian. Starting with the involutive normal form of the equations, we explicitly compute certain cohomology groups having clear physical meaning. These include the groups of global symmetries, conservation laws and Lagrange structures. It is shown that the space of integrable Lagrange structures is naturally isomorphic to the space of weak Poisson brackets. The last fact allows one to establish a direct link between the path-integral quantization of general not necessarily variational dynamics by means of Lagrange structures and the deformation quantization of weak Poisson brackets.Comment: 38 pages, misprints corrected, references and the Conclusion adde

A new approach to the Lenard-Magri scheme of integrability

We develop a new approach to the Lenard-Magri scheme of integrability of bi-Hamiltonian PDE's, when one of the Poisson structures is a strongly skew-adjoint differential operator.Comment: 20 page

Poisson-Nijenhuis structures on quiver path algebras

We introduce a notion of noncommutative Poisson-Nijenhuis structure on the path algebra of a quiver. In particular, we focus on the case when the Poisson bracket arises from a noncommutative symplectic form. The formalism is then applied to the study of the Calogero-Moser and Gibbons-Hermsen integrable systems. In the former case, we give a new interpretation of the bihamiltonian reduction performed in [3].Comment: 23 page

Bihamiltonian cohomology of KdV brackets

Using spectral sequences techniques we compute the bihamiltonian cohomology groups of the pencil of Poisson brackets of dispersionless KdV hierarchy. In particular this proves a conjecture of Liu and Zhang about the vanishing of such cohomology groups.Comment: 16 pages. v2: corrected typos, in particular formulas (28), (78