Batalin-Vilkovisky gauge-fixing of a chiral two-form in six dimensions

We perform the gauge-fixing of the theory of a chiral two-form boson in six dimensions starting from the action given by Pasti, Sorokin and Tonin. We use the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism, introducing antifields and writing down an extended action satisfying the classical master equation. Then we gauge-fix the three local symmetries of the extended action in two different ways.Comment: 15 pages, latex, no figures, version accepted by Class. Quant. Gra

A Superspace Formulation for the Master Equation

It is shown that the quantum master equation of the Field Antifield quantization method at one loop order can be translated into the requirement of a superfield structure for the action. The Pauli Villars regularization is implemented in this BRST superspace and the case of anomalous gauge theories is investigated. The quantum action, including Wess Zumino terms, shows up as one of the components of a superfield that includes the BRST anomalies in the other component. The example of W2 quantum gravity is also discussed.Comment: The constrained nature of standard BRST superfields and the importance of using Alfaro and Damgaard's collective fields in the superspace approach to avoid undefined superfield derivatives was emphasized. To appear in Phys. Rev. D. Latex file, 20 page

Global Anomalies in the Batalin Vilkovisky Quantization

The Batalin Vilkovisky (BV) quantization provides a general procedure for calculating anomalies associated to gauge symmetries. Recent results show that even higher loop order contributions can be calculated by introducing an appropriate regularization-renormalization scheme. However, in its standard form, the BV quantization is not sensible to quantum violations of the classical conservation of Noether currents, the so called global anomalies. We show here that the BV field antifield method can be extended in such a way that the Ward identities involving divergencies of global Abelian currents can be calculated from the generating functional, a result that would not be obtained by just associating constant ghosts to global symmetries. This extension, consisting of trivially gauging the global Abelian symmetries, poses no extra obstruction to the solution of the master equation, as it happens in the case of gauge anomalies. We illustrate the procedure with the axial model and also calculating the Adler Bell Jackiw anomaly.Comment: We emphasized the fact that our procedure only works for the case of Abelian global anomalies. Section 3 was rewritten and some references were added. 12 pages, LATEX. Revised version that will appear in Phys. Rev.

Regularisation, the BV method, and the antibracket cohomology

We review the Lagrangian Batalin--Vilkovisky method for gauge theories. This includes gauge fixing, quantisation and regularisation. We emphasize the role of cohomology of the antibracket operation. Our main example is $d=2$ gravity, for which we also discuss the solutions for the cohomology in the space of local integrals. This leads to the most general form for the action, for anomalies and for background charges.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, Preprint-KUL-TF-94/2

Thermal radiation in non-static curved spacetimes: quantum mechanical path integrals and configuration space topology

A quantum mechanical path integral derivation is given of a thermal propagator in non-static Gui spacetime. The thermal nature of the propagator is understood in terms of homotopically non-trivial paths in the configuration space appropriate to tortoise coordinates. The connection to thermal emission from collapsing black holes is discussed.Comment: 20 pages, major revised version, 9 figures, new titl

Strings in extremal BTZ black holes

We study the spectrum of the worldsheet theory of the bosonic closed string in the massless and extremal rotating BTZ black holes. We use a hyperbolic Wakimoto representation of the SL(2,R) currents to construct vertex operators for the string modes on these backgrounds. We argue that there are tachyons in the twisted sector, but these are not localised near the horizon. We study the relation to the null orbifold in the limit of vanishing cosmological constant. We also discuss the problem of extending this analysis to the supersymmetric case.Comment: 20 pages, no figure

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.

Two-dimensional interactions between a BF-type theory and a collection of vector fields

Consistent interactions that can be added to a two-dimensional, free abelian gauge theory comprising a special class of BF-type models and a collection of vector fields are constructed from the deformation of the solution to the master equation based on specific cohomological techniques. The deformation procedure modifies the Lagrangian action, the gauge transformations, as well as the accompanying algebra of the interacting model.Comment: LaTeX 2e, 31 page

Quantum mechanical path integrals and thermal radiation in static curved spacetimes

The propagator of a spinless particle is calculated from the quantum mechanical path integral formalism in static curved spacetimes endowed with event-horizons. A toy model, the Gui spacetime, and the 2D and 4D Schwarzschild black holes are considered. The role of the topology of the coordinates configuration space is emphasised in this framework. To cover entirely the above spacetimes with a single set of coordinates, tortoise coordinates are extended to complex values. It is shown that the homotopic properties of the complex tortoise configuration space imply the thermal behaviour of the propagator in these spacetimes. The propagator is calculated when end points are located in identical or distinct spacetime regions separated by one or several event-horizons. Quantum evolution through the event-horizons is shown to be unitary in the fifth variable.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figure