Superfield Formulation of the Phase Space Path Integral

We give a superfield formulation of the path integral on an arbitrary curved phase space, with or without first class constraints. Canonical tranformations and BRST transformations enter in a unified manner. The superpartners of the original phase space variables precisely conspire to produce the correct path integral measure, as Pfaffian ghosts. When extended to the case of second-class constraints, the correct path integral measure is again reproduced after integrating over the superpartners. These results suggest that the superfield formulation is of first-principle nature.Comment: 6 pages, LaTe

Unified Constrained Dynamics

The unified constrained dynamics is formulated without making use of the Dirac splitting of constraint classes. The strengthened, completely--closed, version of the unified constraint algebra generating equations is given. The fundamental phase variable supercommutators are included into the unified algebra as well. The truncated generating operator is defined to be nilpotent in terms of which the Unitarizing Hamiltonian is constructed.Comment: Lebedev Inst. preprint, 20 p

On Generalized Gauge-Fixing in the Field-Antifield Formalism

We consider the problem of covariant gauge-fixing in the most general setting of the field-antifield formalism, where the action W and the gauge-fixing part X enter symmetrically and both satisfy the Quantum Master Equation. Analogous to the gauge-generating algebra of the action W, we analyze the possibility of having a reducible gauge-fixing algebra of X. We treat a reducible gauge-fixing algebra of the so-called first-stage in full detail and generalize to arbitrary stages. The associated "square root" measure contributions are worked out from first principles, with or without the presence of antisymplectic second-class constraints. Finally, we consider an W-X alternating multi-level generalization.Comment: 49 pages, LaTeX. v2: Minor changes + 1 more reference. v3,v4,v5: Corrected typos. v5: Version published in Nuclear Physics B. v6,v7: Correction to the published version added next to the Acknowledgemen

Reducible Gauge Algebra of BRST-Invariant Constraints

We show that it is possible to formulate the most general first-class gauge algebra of the operator formalism by only using BRST-invariant constraints. In particular, we extend a previous construction for irreducible gauge algebras to the reducible case. The gauge algebra induces two nilpotent, Grassmann-odd, mutually anticommuting BRST operators that bear structural similarities with BRST/anti-BRST theories but with shifted ghost number assignments. In both cases we show how the extended BRST algebra can be encoded into an operator master equation. A unitarizing Hamiltonian that respects the two BRST symmetries is constructed with the help of a gauge-fixing Boson. Abelian reducible theories are shown explicitly in full detail, while non-Abelian theories are worked out for the lowest reducibility stages and ghost momentum ranks.Comment: 42 pages, LaTeX. v2: New material added to Sec. 3.9-3.10, Sec. 6 and App. E. v3: Version published in Nuclear Physics B. v4: Grant number adde

General solution of classical master equation for reducible gauge theories

We give the general solution to the classical master equation (S,S)=0 for reducible gauge theories. To this aim, we construct a new coordinate system in the extended configuration space and transform the equation by changing variables. Then it can be solved by an iterative method.Comment: 15 pages; v3: refs. added, section 4 substantially improved, a section added; v4: reference and example adde

Triplectic Quantization: A Geometrically Covariant Description of the Sp(2)-symmetric Lagrangian Formalism

A geometric description is given for the Sp(2) covariant version of the field-antifield quantization of general constrained systems in the Lagrangian formalism. We develop differential geometry on manifolds in which a basic set of coordinates (`fields') have two superpartners (`antifields'). The quantization on such a triplectic manifold requires introducing several specific differential-geometric objects, whose properties we study. These objects are then used to impose a set of generalized master-equations that ensure gauge-independence of the path integral. The theory thus quantized is shown to extend to a level-1 theory formulated on a manifold that includes antifields to the Lagrange multipliers. We also observe intriguing relations between triplectic and ordinary symplectic geometry.Comment: Revised version -- our treatment in Section 5 has been extended and several pedagogical notes inserted in Sections 2--4; more references added

Lagrangian Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin treatment of collective coordinates

The Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) treatment for the quantization of collective coordinates is considered in the Lagrangian formalism. The motion of a particle in a Riemannian manifold is studied in the case when the classical solutions break a non-abelian global invariance of the action. Collective coordinates are introduced, and the resulting gauge theory is quantized in the BRST antifield formalism. The partition function is computed perturbatively to two-loops, and it is shown that the results are independent of gauge-fixing parameters.Comment: LaTeX file, 26 pages, PostScript figures at end of fil

Relating the generating functionals in field/antifield formulation through finite field dependent BRST transformation

We study the field/antifield formulation of pure Yang Mills theory in the framework of finite field dependent BRST transformation. We show that the generating functionals corresponding to different solutions of quantum master equation are connected through the finite field dependent BRST transformations. We establish this result with the help of several explicit examples.Comment: Revtex4, 18 pages, No figs, Accepted in Eur. Phys. J

Non-Commutative Batalin-Vilkovisky Algebras, Homotopy Lie Algebras and the Courant Bracket

We consider two different constructions of higher brackets. First, based on a Grassmann-odd, nilpotent \Delta operator, we define a non-commutative generalization of the higher Koszul brackets, which are used in a generalized Batalin-Vilkovisky algebra, and we show that they form a homotopy Lie algebra. Secondly, we investigate higher, so-called derived brackets built from symmetrized, nested Lie brackets with a fixed nilpotent Lie algebra element Q. We find the most general Jacobi-like identity that such a hierarchy satisfies. The numerical coefficients in front of each term in these generalized Jacobi identities are related to the Bernoulli numbers. We suggest that the definition of a homotopy Lie algebra should be enlarged to accommodate this important case. Finally, we consider the Courant bracket as an example of a derived bracket. We extend it to the "big bracket" of exterior forms and multi-vectors, and give closed formulas for the higher Courant brackets.Comment: 42 pages, LaTeX. v2: Added remarks in Section 5. v3: Added further explanation. v4: Minor adjustments. v5: Section 5 completely rewritten to include covariant construction. v6: Minor adjustments. v7: Added references and explanation to Section