No Arabic abstract
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.
We introduce external sources J_A directly into the quantum master action W of the field-antifield formalism instead of the effective action. The external sources J_A lead to a set of BRST-invariant functions W^A that are in antisymplectic involution. As a byproduct, we encounter quasi--groups with open gauge algebras.
We introduce classical and quantum antifields in the reparametrization-invariant effective action, and derive a deformed classical master equation.
It is proven that the nilpotent $Delta$-operator in the field-antifield formalism can be constructed in terms of an antisymplectic structure only.
We implement the metric-independent Fock-Schwinger gauge in the abelian quantum Chern-Simons field theory defined in ${mathbb R}^3$. The expressions of the various components of the propagator are determined. Although the gauge field propagator differs from the Gauss linking density, we prove that its integral along two oriented knots is equal to the linking number.
The gauge-fixing problem of modified cubic open superstring field theory is discussed in detail both for the Ramond and Neveu-Schwarz sectors in the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) framework. We prove for the first time that the same form of action as the classical gauge-invariant one with the ghost-number constraint on the string field relaxed gives the master action satisfying the BV master equation. This is achieved by identifying independent component fields based on the analysis of the kernel structure of the inverse picture changing operator. The explicit gauge-fixing conditions for the component fields are discussed. In a kind of $b_0=0$ gauge, we explicitly obtain the NS propagator which has poles at the zeros of the Virasoro operator $L_0$.