A nilpotent symmetry of quantum gauge theories

For the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) invariant extended action for any gauge theory, there exists another off-shell nilpotent symmetry. For linear gauges, it can be elevated to a symmetry of the quantum theory and used in the construction of the quantum effective action. Generalizations for nonlinear gauges and actions with higher order ghost terms are also possible.Comment: RevTeX, 9 pages, several changes to include generalizations to quartic and higher ghost terms and non-linear gauges. Abstract changed. Final version to be publishe

Wess-Zumino Terms for Reducible Anomalous Gauge Theories

Reducible off-shell anomalous gauge theories are studied in the framework of an extended Field-Antifield formalism by introducing new variables associated with the anomalous gauge degrees of freedom. The Wess-Zumino term for these theories is constructed and new gauge invariances appear. The quantum effects due to the extra variables are considered.Comment: 31 pages, Latex file, no figures. Section added. To appear in Nucl.Phys.

Chiral gauge theories and anomalies in the Wilson renormalization group approach

We extend the Wilson renormalization group (RG) formulation to chiral gauge theories and show that local gauge symmetry can be implemented by a suitable choice of the RG flow boundary conditions. Since the space-time dimension is four, there is no ambiguity in handling the matrix \g_5 and left and right fermions are not coupled. As a result the ultraviolet action contains all possible globally chiral invariant interactions. Nevertheless, the correct chiral anomaly is reproduced.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, LaTex, uses epsfig, amssym

Algebraic renormalization of the BF Yang-Mills Theory

We discuss the quantum equivalence, to all orders of perturbation theory, between the Yang-Mills theory and its first order formulation through a second rank antisymmetric tensor field. Moreover, the introduction of an additional nonphysical vector field allows us to interpret the Yang-Mills theory as a kind of perturbation of the topological BF model.Comment: 14 pages, some references and acknowledgments added, version to appear in Phys.Lett.

Lower body design of the ‘iCub’ a human-baby like crawling robot

The development of robotic cognition and a greater understanding of human cognition form two of the current greatest challenges of science. Within the RobotCub project the goal is the development of an embodied robotic child (iCub) with the physical and ultimately cognitive abilities of a 2frac12 year old human baby. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide the cognition research community with an open human like platform for understanding of cognitive systems through the study of cognitive development. In this paper the design of the mechanisms adopted for lower body and particularly for the leg and the waist are outlined. This is accompanied by discussion on the actuator group realisation in order to meet the torque requirements while achieving the dimensional and weight specifications. Estimated performance measures of the iCub are presented

Numerical study of the scaling properties of SU(2) lattice gauge theory in Palumbo non-compact regularization

In the framework of a non-compact lattice regularization of nonabelian gauge theories we look, in the SU(2) case, for the scaling window through the analysis of the ratio of two masses of hadronic states. In the two-dimensional parameter space of the theory we find the region where the ratio is constant, and equal to the one in the Wilson regularization. In the scaling region we calculate the lattice spacing, finding it at least 20% larger than in the Wilson case; therefore the simulated physical volume is larger.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure

One Loop Anomalies and Wess-Zumino Terms for General Gauge Theories

One loop anomalies and their dependence on antifields for general gauge theories are investigated within a Pauli-Villars regularization scheme. For on-shell theories {\it i.e.}, with open algebras or on-shell reducible theories, the antifield dependence is cohomologically non trivial. The associated Wess-Zumino term depends also on antifields. In the classical basis the antifield independent part of the WZ term is expressed in terms of the anomaly and finite gauge transformations by introducing gauge degrees of freedom as the extra dynamical variables. The complete WZ term is reconstructed from the antifield independent part.Comment: 15 pages, An example of non-abelian antisymmetric field is added. Some corrections are made to refrain from using the reconstruction theorem in the gauge fixed basi

Wilson Renormalization Group for Supersymmetric Gauge Theories and Gauge Anomalies

We extend the Wilson renormalization group (RG) to supersymmetric theories. As this regularization scheme preserves supersymmetry, we exploit the superspace technique. To set up the formalism we first derive the RG flow for the massless Wess-Zumino model and deduce its perturbative expansion. We then consider N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills and show that the local gauge symmetry -broken by the regularization- can be recovered by a suitable choice of the RG flow boundary conditions. We restrict our analysis to the first loop, the generalization to higher loops presenting no difficulty due to the iterative nature of the procedure. Furthermore, adding matter fields, we reproduce the one-loop supersymmetric chiral anomaly to the second order in the vector field.Comment: 22 pages, 1 Postscript figure, uses amssym