No Arabic abstract
Gauge-invariant systems in unconstrained configuration and phase spaces, equivalent to second-class constraints systems upon a gauge-fixing, are discussed. A mathematical pendulum on an $n-1$-dimensional sphere $S^{n-1}$ as an example of a mechanical second-class constraints system and the O(n) non-linear sigma model as an example of a field theory under second-class constraints are discussed in details and quantized using the existence of underlying dilatation gauge symmetry and by solving the constraint equations explicitly. The underlying gauge symmetries involve, in general, velocity dependent gauge transformations and new auxiliary variables in extended configuration space. Systems under second-class holonomic constraints have gauge-invariant counterparts within original configuration and phase spaces. The Diracs supplementary conditions for wave functions of first-class constraints systems are formulated in terms of the Wigner functions which admit, as we show, a broad set of physically equivalent supplementary conditions. Their concrete form depends on the manner the Wigner functions are extrapolated from the constraint submanifolds into the whole phase space.
We analyze several integrable systems in zero-curvature form within the framework of $SL(2,R)$ invariant gauge theory. In the Drienfeld-Sokolov gauge we derive a two-parameter family of nonlinear evolution equations which as special cases include the Kortweg-de Vries (KdV) and Harry Dym equations. We find residual gauge transformations which lead to infinintesimal symmetries of this family of equations. For KdV and Harry Dym equations we find an infinite hierarchy of such symmetry transformations, and we investigate their relation with local conservation laws, constants of the motion and the bi-Hamiltonian structure of the equations. Applying successive gauge transformatinos of Miura type we obtain a sequence of gauge equivalent integrable systems, among them the modified KdV and Calogero KdV equations.
A general method of the BRST--anti-BRST symmetric conversion of second-class constraints is presented. It yields a pair of commuting and nilpotent BRST-type charges that can be naturally regarded as BRST and anti-BRST ones. Interchanging the BRST and anti-BRST generators corresponds to a symmetry between the original second-class constraints and the conversion variables, which enter the formalism on equal footing.
We develop the general theory of Noether symmetries for constrained systems. In our derivation, the Dirac bracket structure with respect to the primary constraints appears naturally and plays an important role in the characterization of the conserved quantities associated to these Noether symmetries. The issue of projectability of these symmetries from tangent space to phase space is fully analyzed, and we give a geometrical interpretation of the projectability conditions in terms of a relation between the Noether conserved quantity in tangent space and the presymplectic form defined on it. We also examine the enlarged formalism that results from taking the Lagrange multipliers as new dynamical variables; we find the equation that characterizes the Noether symmetries in this formalism. The algebra of generators for Noether symmetries is discussed in both the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian formalisms. We find that a frequent source for the appearance of open algebras is the fact that the transformations of momenta in phase space and tangent space only coincide on shell. Our results apply with no distinction to rigid and gauge symmetries; for the latter case we give a general proof of existence of Noether gauge symmetries for theories with first and second class constraints that do not exhibit tertiary constraints in the stabilization algorithm. Among some examples that illustrate our results, we study the Noether gauge symmetries of the Abelian Chern-Simons theory in $2n+1$ dimensions. An interesting feature of this example is that its primary constraints can only be identified after the determination of the secondary constraint. The example is worked out retaining all the original set of variables.
We consider Khudaverdians geometric version of a Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) operator Delta_E in the case of a degenerate anti-Poisson manifold. The characteristic feature of such an operator (aside from being a Grassmann-odd, nilpotent, second-order differential operator) is that it sends semidensities to semidensities. We find a local formula for the Delta_E operator in arbitrary coordinates. As an important application of this setup, we consider the Dirac antibracket on an antisymplectic manifold with antisymplectic second-class constraints. We show that the entire Dirac construction, including the corresponding Dirac BV operator Delta_{E_D}, exactly follows from conversion of the antisymplectic second-class constraints into first-class constraints on an extended manifold.
We show how the Newton-Hooke (NH) symmetries, representing a nonrelativistic version of de-Sitter symmetries, can be enlarged by a pair of translation vectors describing in Galilean limit the class of accelerations linear in time. We study the Cartan-Maurer one-forms corresponding to such enlarged NH symmetry group and by using cohomological methods we determine the general 2-parameter (in D=2+1 4-parameter)central extension of the corresponding Lie algebra. We derive by using nonlinear realizations method the most general group - invariant particle dynamics depending on two (in D=2+1 on four) central charges occurring as the Lagrangean parameters. Due to the presence of gauge invariances we show that for the enlarged NH symmetries quasicovariant dynamics reduces to the one following from standard NH symmetries, with one central charge in arbitrary dimension D and with second exotic central charge in D=2+1.