No Arabic abstract
In the field-antifield formalism, we review existence and uniqueness proofs for the proper action in the reducible case. We give two new existence proofs based on two resolution degrees called reduced antifield number and shifted antifield number, respectively. In particular, we show that for every choice of gauge generators and their higher stage counterparts, there exists a proper action that implements them at the quadratic order in the auxiliary variables.
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.
The unfree gauge symmetry implies that gauge variation of the action functional vanishes provided for the gauge parameters are restricted by the differential equations. The unfree gauge symmetry is shown to lead to the global conserved quantities whose on shell values are defined by the asymptotics of the fields or data on the lower dimension surface, or even at the point of the space-time, rather than Cauchy hyper-surface. The most known example of such quantity is the cosmological constant of unimodular gravity. More examples are provided in the article for the higher spin gravity analogues of the cosmological constant. Any action enjoying the unfree gauge symmetry is demonstrated to admit the alternative form of gauge symmetry with the higher order derivatives of unrestricted gauge parameters. The higher order gauge symmetry is reducible in general, even if the unfree symmetry is not. The relationship is detailed between these two forms of gauge symmetry in the constrained Hamiltonian formalism. The local map is shown to exist from the unfree gauge algebra to the reducible higher order one, while the inverse map is non-local, in general. The Hamiltonian BFV-BRST formalism is studied for both forms of the gauge symmetry. These two Hamiltonian formalisms are shown connected by canonical transformation involving the ghosts. The generating function is local for the transformation, though the transformation as such is not local, in general. Hence, these two local BRST complexes are not quasi-isomorphic in the sense that their local BRST-cohomology groups can be different. This difference in particular concerns the global conserved quantities. From the standpoint of the BRST complex for unfree gauge symmetry, these quantities are BRST-exact, while for the alternative complex, these quantities are the non-trivial co-cycles.
We compute the current exchanges between triplets of higher spin fields which describe reducible representations of the Poincare group. Through this computation we can extract the propagator of the reducible higher spin fields which compose the triplet. We show how to decompose the triplet fields into irreducible HS fields which obey Fronsdal equations, and how to compute the current-current interaction for the cubic couplings which appear in ArXiv:0708.1399 [hep-th] using the decomposition into irreducible modes. We compare this result with the same computation using a gauge fixed (Feynman) version of the triplet Lagrangian which allows us to write very simple HS propagators for the triplet fields.
We compute the ${cal N}=2$ supersymmetric partition function of a gauge theory on a four-dimensional compact toric manifold via equivariant localization. The result is given by a piecewise constant function of the Kahler form with jumps along the walls where the gauge symmetry gets enhanced. The partition function on such manifolds is written as a sum over the residues of a product of partition functions on $mathbb{C}^2$. The evaluation of these residues is greatly simplified by using an abstruse duality that relates the residues at the poles of the one-loop and instanton parts of the $mathbb{C}^2$ partition function. As particular cases, our formulae compute the $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$ {it equivariant} Donaldson invariants of $mathbb{P}^2$ and $mathbb{F}_n$ and in the non-equivariant limit reproduce the results obtained via wall-crossing and blow up methods in the $SU(2)$ case. Finally, we show that the $U(1)$ self-dual connections induce an anomalous dependence on the gauge coupling, which turns out to satisfy a $mathcal{N}=2$ analog of the $mathcal{N}=4$ holomorphic anomaly equations.
In this paper we go deep into the connection between duality and fields redefinition for general bilinear models involving the 1-form gauge field $A$. A duality operator is fixed based on gauge embedding procedure. Dual models are shown to fit in equivalence classes of models with same fields redefinitions.