The four-dimensional model with topological mass generation that was found by Dvali, Jackiw and Pi has recently been generalized to any even number of dimensions (2n-dimensions) in a nontrivial manner in which a Stueckelberg-type mass term is introduced [S. Deguchi and S. Hayakawa, Phys. Rev. D 77, 045003 (2008), arXiv:0711.1446]. The present paper deals with a self-contained model, called here a modified hybrid model, proposed in this 2n-dimensional generalization and considers the canonical formalism for this model. For the sake of convenience, the canonical formalism itself is studied for a model equivalent to the modified hybrid model by following the recipe for treating constrained Hamiltonian systems. This formalism is applied to the canonical quantization of the equivalent model in order to clarify observable and unobservable particles in the model. The equivalent model (with a gauge-fixing term) is converted to the modified hybrid model (with a corresponding gauge-fixing term) in a Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST)-invariant manner. Thereby it is shown that the Chern-Pontryagin density behaves as an observable massive particle (or field). The topological mass generation is thus verified at the quantum-theoretical level.
A canonical formalism for higher-derivative theories is presented on the basis of Dirac's method for constrained systems. It is shown that this formalism shares a path integral expression with Ostrogradski's canonical formalism.
Path integral expressions for three canonical formalisms -- Ostrogradski's one, constrained one and generalized one -- of higher-derivative theories are given. For each fomalism we consider both nonsingular and singular cases. It is shown that three formalisms share the same path integral expressions. In paticular it is pointed out that the generalized canonical formalism is connected with the constrained one by a canonical transformation.
The properties of the canonical symmetry of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation are investigated. The densities of the local conservation laws for this system are shown to change under the action of the canonical symmetry by total space derivatives.
A canonical formalism for Lagrangians of maximal nonlocality is established. The method is based on the familiar Legendre transformation to a new function which can be derived from the maximally nonlocal Lagrangian. The corresponding canonical equations are derived through the standard procedure in local theory and appear much like those local ones, though the implication of the equations is largely expanded.
In this short note we perform canonical analysis of Schrodinger field and non-relativistic electrodynamics coupled to Newton-Cartan gravity. We identify physical degrees of freedom and analyze constraints structure of these theories.
We construct the Hamiltonian formalism of bigravity for the potential of a general form. We find conditions on this potential and prove that under these conditions the formalism is equivalent to the one constructed with the celebrated dRGT-potential.
It is shown how the canonical symmetry is used to look for the hierarchy of the Hamiltonian operators relevant to the system under consideration. It appears that only the invariance condition can be used to solve the problem.
Quantization of gauge fields by the BRST method requires sources in addition to fields, and a bilinear anti-bracket defined in terms of them. This bracket is a sort of generalization of a Poisson bracket in classical mechanics. Canonical transformations are also generalized as anti-canonical transformations. In this paper, we take the analogy with classical mechanics one step further, by showing how anti-canonical transformations can be derived from generating functions. We give an example relevant to the renormalization of QCD in the Hamiltonian formalism.
I consider Lagrangians which depend nonlocally in time but in such a way that there is no mixing between times differing by more than some finite value $Δt$. By considering these systems as the limits of ever higher derivative theories I obtain a canonical formalism in which the coordinates are the dynamical variable from $t$ to $t + {Δt}$. A simple formula for the conjugate momenta is derived in the same way. This formalism makes apparent the virulent instability of this entire class of nonlocal Lagrangians. As an example, the formalism is applied to a nonlocal analog of the harmonic oscillat…
We study a canonical quantization of the Wess--Zumino--Witten (WZW) model which depends on two integer parameters rather than one. The usual theory can be obtained as a contraction, in which our two parameters go to infinity keeping the difference fixed. The quantum theory is equivalent to a generalized Thirring model, with left and right handed fermions transforming under different representations of the symmetry group. We also point out that the classical WZW model with a compact target space has a canonical formalism in which the current algebra is an affine Lie algebra of non--compact type…
We study the gauge invariant 't Hooft operator in canonical formalism for Yang-Mills theory as well as the $\mathcal{N} =4 $ super-Yang-Mills theory with the gauge group $ U(N) $. It is shown that the spectrum of the 't Hooft operator labeled by the arbitrary irreducible representation of the gauge group is the same as the spectrum of the Wilson operator labeled by the same representation. So it is possible to construct a unitary operator $ S $ making the two kinds of loop operators transformed into each other. S-duality transformation could be realized by the operator $ S $. We compute the su…
In the previous paper (hep-th/9712161) it was shown that the nonlinear Born-Infeld field equations supplemented by the "dynamical condition" (certain boundary condition for the field along the particle's trajectory) define perfectly deterministic theory, i.e. particle's trajectory is determined without any equations of motion. In the present paper we show that this theory possesses mathematically consistent Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations. Moreover, it turns out that the "dynamical condition" is already present in the definition of the physical phase space and, therefore, it is a basic…
We propose a systematic method of dealing with the canonical constrained structure of reducible systems in the Dirac and symplectic approaches which involves an enlargement of phase and configuration spaces, respectively. It is not necessary, as in the Dirac approach, to isolate the independent subset of constraints or to introduce, as in the symplectic analysis, a series of lagrange multipliers-for-lagrange multipiers. This analysis illuminates the close connection between the Dirac and symplectic approaches of treating reducible theories, which is otherwise lacking. The example of p-form gau…
We carry out a parallel study of the covariant phase space and the conservation laws of local symmetries in two-dimensional dilaton gravity. Our analysis is based on the fact that the Lagrangian can be brought to a form that vanishes on-shell giving rise to a well-defined covariant potential for the symplectic current. We explicitly compute the symplectic structure and its potential and show that the requirement to be finite and independent of the Cauchy surface restricts the asymptotic symmetries.
On the basis of the covariant description of the canonical formalism for quantization, we present the basic elements of the symplectic geometry for a restricted class of topological defects propagating on a curved background spacetime. We discuss the future extensions of the present results.
In this paper a topological theory of gravity is studied on a four-manifold using the formalism of Capovilla {\sl et al}. We show that it is fact equivalent to Anselmi and Fre's topological gravity using the topological symmetries. Using this formalism gives us a new way to study topological gravity and the intersection theory of gravitational instantons if the (3+1) decomposition with respect to local coordinates is performed.
After constructing a simplified four-dimensional version of the b ghost, topological multiloop amplitudes in type II superstring theory compactified on a six-dimensional orbifold are computed using the non-minimal pure spinor formalism. These pure spinor amplitude computations preserve manifest $N = 2$ $D = 4$ supersymmetry and, unlike the analogous topological multiloop amplitude computations using the hybrid formalism, can be extended to non-topological amplitudes.
The canonical quantization of the topological particle is described; it is shown that BRST quantization of the model gives the supersymmetric quantum mechanical model considered by Witten when investigating Morse theory, and the rigorous path integral method appropriate for this model is discussed. Possibilities for the extension of this work to two dimensional models are briefly considered.
It is shown that the difficulties in formulating the quantum field theory on discrete spacetime appear already in classical dynamics of one degree of freedom on discrete time. The difference equation of motion which maintains a conserved quantity like energy has a very restricted form that is not probably derived by the least action principle. On the other hand, the classical dynamics is possible to be canonically formulated and quantized, if the equation is derived from an action. The difficulties come mainly from this incompatibility of the conserved quantity and the action principle. We for…
This short note is devoted to the Hamiltonian analysis of the normalized general relativity and recently proposed model of vacuum energy sequestering. The common property of these models is the presence of the global variables. We discuss the meaning of these global variables in the context of the canonical formalism and argue that their presence lead to the non-local form of the Hamiltonian constraint.
The first order form of a three dimensional U(1) gauge theory in which a gauge invariant mass term appears is analyzed using the Dirac procedure. The form of the gauge transformation which leaves the action invariant is derived from the constraints present.
We quantize the topological $σ$-model. The quantum master equation of the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism $Δ_ρΨ= 0$ appears as a condition which eliminates the exact states from the BRST invariant states $Ψ$ defined by $Q Ψ= 0$. The phase space of the BV formalism is a supermanifold with a specific symplectic structure, called the fermionic Kähler manifold.
The problem of a harmonic oscillator coupling to an electromagnetic potential plus a topological-like (Chern-Simons) massive term, in two-dimensional space, is studied in the light of the symplectic formalism proposed by Faddeev and Jackiw for constrained systems.
We quantize the (2+1)-dimensional self-dual and Maxwell-Chern-Simons theories by using the Faddeev-Jackiw formulation and compare the results with those of the Dirac formalism.
We develop a Lagrangian approach for constructing a symplectic structure for singular systems. It gives a simple and unified framework for understanding the origin of the pathologies that appear in the Dirac-Bergmann formalism, and offers a more general approach for a symplectic formalism, even when there is no Hamiltonian in a canonical sense. We can thus overcome the usual limitations of the canonical quantization, and perform an algebraically consistent quantization for a more general set of Lagrangian systems.
Motivated by previous computations of Y. Cao, M. Kool and the author, we propose square roots and sign rules for the vertex and edge terms that compute Donaldson-Thomas invariants of a toric Calabi-Yau 4-fold, and prove that they are canonical, exploiting the combinatorics of plane and solid partitions.
Abelian topologically massive gauge theories (TMGT) provide a topological mechanism to generate mass for a bosonic p-tensor field in any spacetime dimension. These theories include the 2+1 dimensional Maxwell-Chern-Simons and 3+1 dimensional Cremmer-Scherk actions as particular cases. Within the Hamiltonian formulation, the embedded topological field theory (TFT) sector related to the topological mass term is not manifest in the original phase space. However through an appropriate canonical transformation, a gauge invariant factorisation of phase space into two orthogonal sectors is feasible. …
Following suggestions of Nekrasov and Siegel, a non-minimal set of fields are added to the pure spinor formalism for the superstring. Twisted $\hat c$=3 N=2 generators are then constructed where the pure spinor BRST operator is the fermionic spin-one generator, and the formalism is interpreted as a critical topological string. Three applications of this topological string theory include the super-Poincare covariant computation of multiloop superstring amplitudes without picture-changing operators, the construction of a cubic open superstring field theory without contact-term problems, and a ne…
We study contact four-point amplitudes in the spinor-helicity formalism in anti-de Sitter space. We find that these amplitudes can be brought to an especially simple form, which we call canonical. Next, we classify consistent contact amplitudes by requiring correct transformation properties with respect to the AdS isometry algebra. Finally, we establish a connection between the canonical form of AdS amplitudes and scalar multi-trace conformal primaries in flat space.
The Barbero-Immirzi (BI) parameter is promoted to a field and a canonical analysis is performed when it is coupled with a Nieh-Yan topological invariant. It is shown that, in the effective theory, the BI field is a canonical pseudoscalar minimally coupled with gravity. This framework is argued to be more natural than the one of the usual Holst action. Potential consequences in relation with inflation and the quantum theory are briefly discussed.
We make a systematic development of the non-Abelian formulation of two-form gauge fields with topological coupling with the Yang-Mills one-form connection. An analysis of the gauge structure, reducibility conditions and physical degrees of freedom is presented. We employ the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism to quantize the resulting theory.
We present a Mathai-Quillen interpretation of topological sigma models. The key to the construction is a natural connection in a suitable infinite dimensional vector bundle over the space of maps from a Riemann surface (the world sheet) to an almost complex manifold (the target). We show that the covariant derivative of the section defined by the differential operator that appears in the equation for pseudo-holomorphic curves is precisely the linearization of the operator itself. We also discuss the Mathai-Quillen formalism of gauged topological sigma models.
A broad class of contour gauges is shown to be determined by admissible contractions of the geometrical region considered and a suitable equivalence class of curves is defined. In the special case of magnetostatics, the relevant electromagnetic potentials are directly related to the ponderomotive forces. Schwinger's method of extracting a gauge invariant factor from the fermion propagator could, it is argued, lead to incorrect results. Dirac brackets of both Maxwell and Yang-Mills theories are given for arbitrary admissible space-like paths. It is shown how to define a non-abelian flux and loc…
The covariant canonical formalism is a covariant extension of the traditional canonical formalism of fields. In contrast to the traditional canonical theory, it has a remarkable feature that canonical equations of gauge theories or gravity are not only manifestly Lorentz covariant but also gauge covariant or diffeomorphism covariant. A mathematical peculiarity of the covariant canonical formalism is that its canonical coordinates are differential forms on a manifold. In the present paper, we find a natural Poisson bracket of this new canonical theory, and study symplectic structure behind it. …
We construct multiloop superparticle amplitudes in 11d using the pure spinor formalism. We explain how this construction reduces to the superparticle limit of the multiloop pure spinor superstring amplitudes prescription. We then argue that this construction points to some evidence for the existence of a topological M theory based on a relation between the ghost number of the full-fledged supersymmetric critical models and the dimension of the spacetime for topological models. In particular, we show that the extensions at higher orders of the previous results for the tree and one-loop level ex…
Canonical quantization of gravitational systems is obstructed by the problem of time. Due to diffeomorphism symmetry the Hamiltonian vanishes: dynamics with respect to a background time parameter appears "frozen." Two strategies towards the quantization of such systems are the identification of a clock degree of freedom before quantization (deparametrization), and quantization on a kinematical Hilbert space which is subject to constraints (Dirac quantization). The usual canonical quantization in quantum field theory is analogous to deparametrization. Here we introduce a frozen formalism and Di…
We revisit the gauge-covariant canonical formalism by separating explicitly physical and gauge degrees of freedom. We show in particular that the gauge-invariant linear and angular momentum operators proposed by Chen et al. can consistently be derived from the standard procedure based on the Noether's theorem. Finally, we demonstrate that this approach is essentially equivalent to the gauge-invariant canonical formalism based on the concept of Dirac variables. Because of many similarities with the background field method, the formalism developed here should also be relevant to general relativi…
We prove that, for any theory defined over a space-time with boundary, the symplectic form derived in the covariant phase space is equivalent to the one derived from the canonical formalism.
It is suggested that topological membranes play a fundamental role in the recently proposed topological M-theory. We formulate a topological theory of membranes wrapping associative three-cycles in a seven-dimensional target space with G_2 holonomy. The topological BRST rules and BRST invariant action are constructed via the Mathai-Quillen formalism. In a certain gauge we show this theory to be equivalent to a membrane theory with two BRST charges found by Beasley and Witten. We argue that at the quantum level an additional topological term should be included in the action, which measures the …
We present a concise method to construct a BRST invariant action for the topological quantum field theories in the Batalin-Vilkovisky antifield formalism. The BV action that is a solution for the master equation is directly obtained by means of the extended forms that involve all the required ghosts and antifields. The BV actions for the non-abelian $BF$ theories (in 4 and higher dimensions) and the Chern-Simons theory are constructed by means of the extended form method. An extension of the $BF$ theory in 4-dimensions to include a ``cosmological term'' is also examined and the close connectio…
Canonical formulation of higher order theory of gravity can only be accomplished associating additional degrees of freedom, which are extrinsic curvature tensor. Consequently, to match Cauchy data with the boundary data, terms in addition to the three-space metric, must also be fixed at the boundary. While, in all the three, viz. Ostrogradski's, Dirac's and Horowitz' formalisms, extrinsic curvature tensor is kept fixed at the boundary, a modified Horowitz' formalism fixes Ricci scalar, instead. It has been taken as granted that the Hamiltonian structure corresponding to all the formalisms with…
In classical mechanics, we can describe the dynamics of a given system using either the Lagrangian formalism or the Hamiltonian formalism, the choice of either one being determined by whether one wants to deal with a second degree differential equation or a pair of first degree ones. For the former approach, we know that the Euler-Lagrange equation of motion remains invariant under additive total derivative with respect to time of any function of coordinates and time in the Lagrangian function, whereas the latter one is invariant under canonical transformations. In this short paper we address …
Using embedding of complex curves in the complex projective plane $\bf{P }^{2}$, we develop a \emph{non planar} topological 3-vertex formalism for topological strings on the family of local Calabi-Yau threefolds $X^{(m,-m,0) }=\mathcal{O}(m)\oplus \mathcal{O}(-m)\to E^{(t,\infty)}$. The base $E^{(t,\infty)}$ stands for the degenerate elliptic curve with Kahler parameter $t$; but a large complex structure $μ$; i.e $| μ| \longrightarrow \infty $. We also give first results regarding A-model topological string amplitudes on $X^{(m,-m,0)}$. The 2D $U(1) $ gauged $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric sigm…
We discuss a field theoretical extension of the basic structures of classical analytical mechanics within the framework of the De Donder--Weyl (DW) covariant Hamiltonian formulation. The analogue of the symplectic form is argued to be the {\em polysymplectic} form of degree $(n+1)$, where $n$ is the dimension of space-time, which defines a map between multivector fields or, more generally, graded derivation operators on exterior algebra, and forms of various degrees which play a role of dynamical variables. The Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket on multivector fields induces the graded analogue of the…
In this short note we present analysis of the tachyon kink solution in the canonical formalism. We also find Hamiltonian for simplified system of Dp-brane and anti-Dp-brane.
We discuss the canonical quantization of Quantum Electrodynamics in $2+1$ dimensions, with a Chern-Simons topological mass term and gauge-covariant coupling to a Dirac spinor field. A gauge-fixing term is used which generates a canonical momentum for $A_0$, so that there are no primary constraints on operator-valued fields. Gauss's Law and the gauge condition, $A_0=0$, are implemented by embedding the formulation in an appropriate physical subspace, in which state vectors remain naturally, in the course of time evolution. The photon propagator is derived from the canonical theory. The electric…
The dynamics of five-dimensional Chern-Simons theories is analyzed. These theories are characterized by intricate self couplings which give rise to dynamical features not present in standard theories. As a consequence, Dirac's canonical formalism cannot be directly applied due to the presence of degeneracies of the symplectic form and irregularities of the constraints on some surfaces of phase space, obscuring the dynamical content of these theories. Here we identify conditions that define sectors where the canonical formalism can be applied for a class of non-Abelian Chern-Simons theories, in…
We analyze the symmetry realized asymptotically on the two dimensional boundary of AdS_3 geometry in topologically massive gravity, which consists of the gravitational Chern-Simons term as well as the usual Einstein-Hilbert and negative cosmological constant terms. Our analysis is based on the conventional canonical method and proceeds along the line completely parallel to the original Brown and Henneaux's. In spite of the presence of the gravitational Chern-Simons term, it is confirmed by the canonical method that the boundary theory actually has the conformal symmetry satisfying the left and…
The Hamiltonian of the Relativistic Theory of Gravitation (RTG) with nonzero graviton mass is derived. Scalar field is taken as a matter source. The second class constraints are excluded and Dirac brackets are obtained. There are no first class constraints in the theory. The Poincare group generators are found by specifying the family of hypersurfaces and the Poincare algebra is realized in Dirac brackets. This is in accordance with the statement that there are 10 conservation laws in the RTG.
We propose a new vertex formalism, called anti-refined topological vertex (anti-vertex for short), to compute the generalized topological string amplitude, which gives rise to the supergroup gauge theory partition function. We show the one-to-many correspondence between the gauge theory and the Calabi--Yau geometry, which is peculiar to the supergroup theory, and the relation between the ordinary vertex formalism and the vertex/anti-vertex formalism through the analytic continuation.
Canonical tensor model (CTM for short below) is a rank-three tensor model formulated as a totally constrained system in the canonical formalism. In the classical case, the constraints form a first-class constraint Poisson algebra with structures similar to that of the ADM formalism of general relativity, qualifying CTM as a possible discrete formalism for quantum gravity. In this paper, we show that, in a formal continuum limit, the constraint Poisson algebra of CTM with no cosmological constant exactly reproduces that of the ADM formalism. To this end, we obtain the expression of the metric t…
We study T-duality transformations in canonical formalism for Nambu-Gotto action. Then we investigate the relation between world-sheet double Wick rotation and sequence of target space T-dualities and Wick rotation in case of fundamental string and D1-brane.
We show that the recently developed soldering formalism in the Lagrangian approach and canonical transformations in the Hamiltonian approach are complementary. The examples of gauged chiral bosons in two dimensions and self-dual models in three dimensions are discussed in details.
The canonical formalism in classical theory of QCD is constructed on a space-like hypersurface. The Poisson bracket on the space-like hypersurface is defined and it plays an important role to describe every algebraic relation in the canonical formalism into Lorentz covariant form. Surface integrals are introduced as alternatives of field equations for quarks, gluons, and Faddeev-Popov ghosts. It is shown that deformations of the space-like hypersurface for surface integrals are generated by the interaction term of QCD Hamiltonian density. By converting the Poisson bracket on the space-like hyp…
