On BRST Lagrangian description of partially massless bosonic fields
Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research（布洛赫伯理论物理实验室，核联合研究所）；Department of Theoretical Physics, Tomsk State Pedagogical University（托姆斯克国立师范学院理论物理系）；Tomsk Polytechnic University（托姆斯克理工大学）
We present an exhaustive BRST lagrangian description of partially massless bosonic fields in four-dimensional space. The basic fields are formulated in terms of two-component spin-tensors in (A)dS space where the tracelessness conditions are automatically fulfilled. The mass shell of partially massless fields is reformulated in terms of constraints on Fock space vectors including the second-class constraints. A conversion procedure for transforming second-class constraints into first-class ones is developed, allowing one to construct a Hermitian and nilpotent BRST charge in the Fock space under consideration. It is proven that the hermiticity and nilpotency restrict the conditions on the theory parameters, which are fulfilled only in dS space. The hermiticity of the BRST charge is incompatible with AdS space. The gauge invariant Lagrangian is constructed on the basis of the BRST charge, and for spin $s$ and depth $t$ the allowed states in the Lagrangian include only $(s-t-1)$ Stückelberg fields. Their exclusion leads to gauge transformations of degree $(s-t)$ for the physical fields. The Lagrangian equations of motion exactly reproduce the mass shell conditions. The Lagrangian in terms of conventional spin-tensor fields is also presented.
Using the generalized Hamiltonian method of Batalin, Fradkin and Vilkovsky we develop the BRST formalism for the bosonic string on AdS(5)xS(5) formulated as principal chiral model. Then we show that the monodromy matrix and non-local charges are BRST invariant.
The BRST approach is applied to the description of irreducible massless higher spins representations of the Poincare group in arbitrary dimensions. The total system of constraints in such theory includes both the first and the second class constraints. The corresponding nilpotent BRST charge contains terms up to the seventh degree in ghosts.
The general BRST-BFV analysis of anomaly in the string theory coupled to background fields is carried out. An exact equation for c-valued symbol of anomaly operator is found and structure of its solutions is studied.
Using BRST-BV formulation of relativistic dynamics, arbitrary spin massless and massive field propagating in flat space and arbitrary spin massless fields propagating in AdS space are considered. For such fields, BRST-BV Lagrangians invariant under gauge transformations are obtained. The Lagrangians and gauge transformations are built in terms of traceless gauge fields and traceless gauge transformation parameters. The use of the Poincare parametrization of AdS space allows us to get simple BRST-BV Lagrangian for AdS fields. By imposing the Siegel gauge condition, we get gauge-fixed Lagrangian…
The detailed description of the method of the construction of the nilpotent BRST charges for nonlinear algebras of constraints appearing in the description of the massless higher spin fields on the $AdS_D$ background is presented. It is shown that the corresponding BRST charge is not uniquely defined, but this ambiguity has no impact on the physical content of the theory.
We formulate the conditions defining the irreducible continuous spin representation of the four-dimensional Poincaré group based on spin-tensor fields with dotted and undotted indices. Such a formulation simplifies analysis of the Bargmann-Wigner equations and reduces the number of equations from four to three. Using this formulation we develop the BRST approach and derive the covariant Lagrangian for the continuous spin fields.
The basic BRST cohomological properties of a free, massless tensor field with the mixed symmetry of the Riemann tensor are studied in detail. It is shown that any non-trivial co-cycle from the local BRST cohomology group can be taken to stop at antighost number three, its last component belonging to the cohomology of the exterior longitudinal derivative and containing non-trivial elements from the (invariant) characteristic cohomology.
We construct a concise gauge invariant formulation for massless, partially massless, and massive bosonic AdS fields of arbitrary symmetry type at the level of equations of motion. Our formulation admits two equivalent descriptions: in terms of the ambient space and in terms of an appropriate vector bundle, as an explicitly local first-order BRST formalism. The second version is a parent-like formulation that can be used to generate various other formulations via equivalent reductions. In particular, we demonstrate a relation to the unfolded description of massless and partially massless fields…
We apply the BRST approach, previously developed for higher spin field theories, to gauge invariant Lagrangian construction for antisymmetric massive and massless bosonic fields in arbitrary d-dimensional curved space. The obtained theories are reducible gauge models both in massless and massive cases and the order of reducibility grows with the value of the rank of the antisymmetric field. In both the cases the Lagrangians contain the sets of auxiliary fields and possess more rich gauge symmetry in comparison with standard Lagrangian formulation for the antisymmetric fields. This serves addit…
The local and manifestly covariant Lagrangian interactions in four spacetime dimensions that can be added to a free model that describes a massless Rarita-Schwinger theory and an Abelian BF theory are constructed by means of deforming the solution to the master equation on behalf of specific cohomological techniques.
We examine interacting bosonic higher spin gauge fields in the BRST-antifield formalism. Assuming that an interacting action $S$ is a deformation of the free action with a deformation parameter $g$, we solve the master equation $(S,S)=0$ from the lower orders in $g$. It is shown that choosing a certain cubic interaction as the first order deformation, we can solve the master equation and obtain an action containing all orders in $g$. The anti-ghost number of the obtained action is less than or equal to two. Furthermore we show that the obtained action is lifted to that of interacting bosonic h…
Using BRST-BV formulation of relativistic dynamics, we study arbitrary spin massive and massless fields propagating in flat space. Generating functions of gauge invariant off-shell cubic interaction vertices for mixed-symmetry and totally symmetric fields are obtained. For the case of totally symmetric fields, we derive restrictions on the allowed values of spins and the number of derivatives, which provide a classification of cubic interaction vertices for such fields. As by product, we present simple expressions for the Yang-Mills and gravitational interactions of massive totally symmetric a…
The main BRST cohomological properties of a free, massless tensor field that transforms in an irreducible representation of GL(D,R), corresponding to a rectangular, two-column Young diagram with k>2 rows are studied in detail. In particular, it is shown that any non-trivial co-cycle from the local BRST cohomology group H(s|d) can be taken to stop either at antighost number (k+1) or k, its last component belonging to the cohomology of the exterior longitudinal derivative H(gamma) and containing non-trivial elements from the (invariant) characteristic cohomology H^{inv}(delta|d).
Tachyon condensation on a bosonic D-brane was recently demonstrated numerically in Witten's open string field theory with level truncation approximation. This non-perturbative vacuum, which is obtained by solving the equation of motion, has to satisfy furthermore the requirement of BRST invariance. This is indispensable in order for the theory around the non-perturbative vacuum to be consistent. We carry out the numerical analysis of the BRST invariance of the solution and find that it holds to a good accuracy. We also mention the zero-norm property of the solution. The observations in this pa…
Exploiting the theoretical potential of the modified Bonora-Tonin superfield approach (MBTSA) as well as the (anti-)chiral superfield approach (ACSA) to Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) formalism, we derive the complete set of off-shell nilpotent (anti-)BRST symmetry transformations corresponding to the classical two $(1 + 1)$-dimensional (2D) diffeomorphism symmetry transformations on the world-sheet (that is traced out by the motion of a model of bosonic string). Only the BRST symmetry transformations for this model have been discussed in the earlier literature. We derive the (anti-)BRST inv…
A complete analysis of the canonical structure for a gauge fixed PST bosonic five brane action is performed. This canonical formulation is quadratic in the dependence on the antisymmetric field and it has second class constraints. We remove the second class constraints and a master canonical action with only first class constraints is proposed. The nilpotent BRST charge and its BRST invariant effective theory is constructed. The construction does not assume the existence of the inverse of the induced metric. Singular configurations are then physical ones. We obtain the physical Hamiltonian of …
Totally symmetric arbitrary spin massless and massive fields in AdS space are studied. For such fields, we obtain Lagrangians which are invariant under global BRST transformations. The Lagrangians are used for computation of partition functions and effective actions. We demonstrate that BRST invariant bulk action for massless field evaluated on the solution of Dirichlet problem for gauge massless fields and Faddeev-Popov fields leads to BRST invariant effective action for canonical shadow gauge fields and shadow Faddeev-Popov fields, while the BRST invariant bulk action for massive field evalu…
In this work we present a proof of the discreteness of the spectrum for bosonic membrane, in a flat minkowski space. This may be useful to show the quantum mechanical consistence of others bosonics extended models. This proof includes the BRST residual symmetry and was directly performed over the discretized membrane model. The BRST residual invariant effective action is explicity constructed.
We develop an approach to constructing the manifestly Lorentz covariant cubic interaction vertices for the four-dimensional massless higher spin bosonic fields with two-component dotted and undotted spinor indices. Such fields automatically satisfy the traceless conditions what simplify form of the equations determining the irreducible massless representation of the Poincar'e group with given helicity. The cubic vertex is formulated in the framework of the BRST approach to higher spin field theory. Use of the above spin-tensor fields allows to simplify a form of the BRST-charge and hence to fi…
We derive the various forms of BRST symmetry using Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky approach in the case of Abelian 2-form gauge theory. We show that the so-called dual BRST symmetry is not an independent symmetry but the generalization of BRST symmetry obtained from the canonical transformation in the bosonic and ghost sector. We further obtain the new forms of both BRST and dual-BRST symmetry by making a general transformation in the Lagrange multipliers of the bosonic and ghost sector of the theory.
We show that the harmonic Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin method of quantizing bosonic systems with second-class constraints or first-class holomorphic constraints extends to systems having both bosonic and fermionic second-class or first-class holomorphic constraints. Using a limit argument, we show that the harmonic BRST modified path integral reproduces the correct Senjanovic measure.
Motivated by construction of isospin generators in particle physics (built form the SU(2) algebra), we find an equivalence between the algebra of these generators and those of the Virasoro algebra. The form of the starting generators is fixed and in order to obtain a full equivalence we introduce a new matrix product. The Cartan structure of the starting algebra is reproduced for the Virasoro-like case and a natural BRST quantization as in String Field Theory is ``induced'' in the Fock space of the creation/annihilation operators. Following this procedure, we find a rather trivial Lie algebra …
We investigate in detail the critical $N{=}2$ fermionic string with and without a global ${\bf Z}_2$ twist. An analysis of BRST cohomology shows that twisted sectors contain massless `spacetime' fermions which are {\it non-local\/} with respect to the standard massless boson. However, two distinct GSO projections exist, one (untwisted) retaining merely the usual boson and its spectral-flow partner, the other (twisted) yielding two fermions and one boson, on the massless level. The corresponding chiral BRST-invariant vertex operators are constructed in certain pictures, and their fusion and pic…
We exploit the beauty and strength of the symmetry invariant restrictions on the (anti-)chiral superfields to derive the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST), anti-BRST and (anti-)co-BRST symmetry transformations in the case of a two (1+1)-dimensional (2D) self-dual chiral bosonic field theory within the framework of augmented (anti-)chiral superfield formalism. Our 2D ordinary theory is generalized onto a (2, 2)-dimensional supermanifold which is parameterized by the superspace variable Z^M = (x^μ, θ, \barθ) where x^μ(with μ= 0, 1) are the ordinary 2D bosonic coordinates and (θ,\, \barθ) are a pa…
We develop the BRST approach to Lagrangian formulation for all massless half-integer higher spin fields on an arbitrary dimensional flat space. General procedure of Lagrangian construction describing the dynamics of fermionic field with any spin is given. It is shown that in fermionic case the higher spin field model is a reducible gauge theory and the order of reducibility grows with the value of spin. No off-shell constraints on the fields and the gauge parameters are used. We prove that in four dimensions after partial gauge fixing the Lagrangian obtained can be transformed to Fang-Fronsdal…
We consider the sl(2) current algebra at level k=-4 when the sl(2) BRST operator is nilpotent. We formulate a spectral sequence converging to the cohomology of this BRST operator. At the second term of the spectral sequence, we observe an N=4 algebra. This algebra is generated in a c=-2 bosonic string whose BRST operator Q_{string} represents the next term in the spectral sequence. We realize the cohomology of the irreducible modules as Q_{string}-primitives of the N=4 singular vectors and point out their relation to Lian--Zuckerman states of c=-2 matter. The relation between sl(2)_{-4} WZW mo…
We develop the BRST approach to Lagrangian construction for the massive integer higher spin fields in an arbitrary dimensional AdS space. The theory is formulated in terms of auxiliary Fock space. Closed nonlinear symmetry algebra of higher spin bosonic theory in AdS space is found and method of deriving the BRST operator for such an algebra is proposed. General procedure of Lagrangian construction describing the dynamics of bosonic field with any spin is given on the base of the BRST operator. No off-shell constraints on the fields and the gauge parameters are used from the very beginning. As…
We study some features of bosonic particle path-integral quantization in a twistor-like approach by use of the BRST-BFV quantization prescription. In the course of the Hamiltonian analysis we observe links between various formulations of the twistor-like particle by performing a conversion of the Hamiltonian constraints of one formulation to another. A particular feature of the conversion procedure applied to turn the second-class constraints into the first-class constraints is that the simplest Lorentz-covariant way to do this is to convert a full mixed set of the initial first- and second-cl…
We consider the covariant quantization of the D=11 massless superparticle (M0-brane) in the spinor moving frame or twistor-like Lorentz harmonics formulation. The action involves the set of 16 constrained 32 component Majorana spinors, the spinor Lorentz harmonics parametrizing (as homogeneous coordinates, modulo gauge symmetries) the celestial sphere S9. There presence allows us to separate covariantly the first and the second class constraints of the model. After taking into account the second class constraints by means of Dirac brackets and after further reducing the first class constraints…
The worldsheet sigma-model of the superstring in AdS(5) x S(5) has a one-parameter family of flat connections parametrized by the spectral parameter. The corresponding Wilson line is not BRST invariant for an open contour, because the BRST transformation leads to boundary terms. These boundary terms define a cohomological complex associated to the endpoint of the contour. We study the cohomology of this complex for Wilson lines in some infinite-dimensional representations. We find that for these representations the cohomology is nontrivial at the ghost number 2. This implies that it is possibl…
We obtain the higher spin tractor equations of motion conjectured by Gover et al. from a BRST approach and use those methods to prove that they describe massive, partially massless and massless higher spins in conformally flat backgrounds. The tractor description makes invariance under local choices of unit system manifest. In this approach, physical systems are described by conformal, rather than (pseudo-)Riemannian geometry. In particular masses become geometric quantities, namely the weights of tractor fields. Massive systems can therefore be handled in a unified and simple manner mimicking…
We first derive all world-sheet action functionals for NSR superstring models with (1,1) supersymmetry and any number of abelian gauge fields, for gauge transformations of the standard form. Then we prove for these models that the BRST cohomology groups $H^g(s)$, $g<4$ (with the antifields taken into account) are isomorphic to those of the corresponding bosonic string models, whose cohomology is fully known. This implies that the nontrivial global symmetries, Noether currents, background charges, consistent deformations and candidate gauge anomalies of an NSR (1,1) superstring model are in one…
We perform a BRST analysis of the N=2 superconformal minimal unitary models. A bosonic as well as fermionic BRST operators are used to construct irreducible representations of the N=2 superconformal algebra on the Fock space as BRST cohomology classes of the BRST operators. Also a character formula is rederived by using the BRST analysis.
We develop the BRST approach to Lagrangian formulation for massive bosonic and massless fermionic higher spin fields on a flat space-time of arbitrary dimension. General procedure of gauge invariant Lagrangian construction describing the dynamics of the fields with any spin is given. No off-shell constraints on the fields (like tracelessness) and the gauge parameters are imposed. The procedure is based on construction of new representations for the closed algebras generated by the constraints defining irreducible representations of the Poincare group. We also construct Lagrangians describing p…
We propose a superfield formalism of Lagrangian BRST-antiBRST quantization of arbitrary gauge theories in general coordinates with the base manifold of fields and antifields desribed in terms of both bosonic and fermionic variables.
A Unique Bosonic Symmetry in a 4D Field-Theoretic System
Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University（贝拿勒斯印度教大学科学研究所）；DST Centre for Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University（贝拿勒斯印度教大学科学研究所跨学科数学科学 DST 中心）
The method of the BRST quantization is considered for the system of constraints, which form a Lie algebra. When some of the Cartan generators do not imply any conditions on the physical states, the system contains the first and the second class constraints. After the introduction auxiliary bosonic degrees of freedom for these cases, the corresponding BRST charges with the nontrivial structure of nonlinear terms in ghosts are constructed.
Using BRST-BV approach, massless and massive continuous-spin fields propagating in the flat space are studied. For such fields, BRST-BV gauge invariant Lagrangian is obtained. The Lagrangian and gauge transformations are constructed out of traceless gauge fields and traceless gauge transformation parameters. Interrelation between the BRST-BV Lagrangian and the Lagrangian for the continuous-spin fields in metric-like approach is demonstrated. Considering the BRST-BV Lagrangian in the Siegel gauge, we get gauge-fixed Lagrangian which is invariant under global BRST and antiBRST transformations.
We study the BRST quantization of bosonic and NSR strings propagating in AdS(3) x N backgrounds. The no-ghost theorem is proved using the Frenkel-Garland-Zuckerman method. Regular and spectrally-flowed representations of affine SL(2,R) appear on an equal footing. Possible generalizations to related curved backgrounds are discussed.
We study matrix models as a new approach to formulate massless higher spin gauge field theory. As a first step in this direction, we show that the free equation of motion of bosonic massless higher spin gauge fields can be derived from that of a matrix model.
We briefly review some modern developments in higher spin field theory and their links with superstring theory. The analysis is based on various BRST constructions allowing to derive the Lagrangians for massive and massless higher spin fields on flat or constant curvature backgrounds of arbitrary dimensions.
Gauge-invariant descriptions for a free bosonic scalar field of continuous spin in a $d$-dimensional Minkowski space-time using a metric-like formulation are constructed on the basis of a constrained BRST-BFV approach we propose. The resulting BRST-BFV equations of motion for a scalar field augmented by ghost operators contains different sets of auxiliary fields, depending on the manner of a partial gauge-fixing and a resolution of some of the equations of motion for a BRST-unfolded first-stage reducible gauge theory. To achieve an equivalence of the resulting BRST-unfolded constrained equatio…
We describe the procedure of dimensional reduction of massless fields in $(D+1)$ dimensional Minkowski space to massive ones in $D$ dimensions in the first-quantized setting. The procedure is compatible with Lagrangian and in a straightforward way determines the inner product for massive fields. Howe duality and the extensive usage of BRST formalism allows to keep the description concise. We consider both bosonic and fermionic mixed-symmetry fields.
We present example of exact solution to Witten's open bosonic string field theory. We will analyse the new BRST operator and we will argue that the new solution describes the flow from zero slope limit to the tensionless limit in the string world-sheet action.
We investigate new realisations of the $W_3$ algebra with arbitrary central charge, making use of the fact that this algebra can be linearised by the inclusion of a spin-1 current. We use the new realisations with $c=102$ and $c=100$ to build non-critical and critical $W_3$ BRST operators. Both of these can be converted by local canonical transformations into a BRST operator for the Virasoro string with $c=28-2$, together with a Kugo-Ojima topological term. Consequently, these new realisations provide embeddings of the Virasoro string into non-critical and critical $W_3$ strings.
We propose a generalisation of the Faddeev-Popov trick for Yang-Mills fields in the Landau gauge. The gauge-fixing is achieved as a genuine change of variables. In particular the Jacobian that appears is the modulus of the standard Faddeev-Popov determinant. We give a path integral representation of this in terms of auxiliary bosonic and Grassman fields extended beyond the usual set for standard Landau gauge BRST. The gauge-fixing Lagrangian density appearing in this context is local and enjoys a new extended BRST and anti-BRST symmetry though the gauge-fixing Lagrangian density in this case i…
We derive the off-shell nilpotent and absolutely anticommuting Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) and anti-BRST symmetry transformations for a supersymmetric system of a free spinning relativistic particle within the framework of superfield approach to BRST formalism. A novel feature of our present investigation is the consistent and clear supersymmetric modification of the celebrated horizontality condition for the precise determination of the proper (anti-)BRST symmetry transformations for all the bosonic and fermionic dynamical variables of our theory which is considered on a (1, 2)-dimension…
Some general formulas are derived for the solutions of a BRST quantization on inner product spaces of finite dimensional bosonic gauge theories invariant under arbitrary Lie groups. A detailed analysis is then performed of SL(2,R) invariant models and some possible geometries of the Lagrange multipliers are derived together with explicit results for a class of SL(2,R) models. Gauge models invariant under a nonunimodular gauge group are also studied in some detail.
The lagrangian description of irreducible massless representations of the Poincare group with the corresponding Young tableaux having two rows along with some explicit examples including the notoph and Weyl tensor is given. For this purpose is used the method of the BRST constructions adopted to the systems of second class constraints by the construction of an auxiliary representations of the algebras of constraints in terms of Verma modules.
We construct vertex operators for massless higher spin fields in RNS superstring theory and compute some of their three-point correlators, describing gauge-invariant cubic interactions of the massless higher spins. The Fierz-Pauli on-shell conditions for the higher spins (including tracelessness and vanishing divergence) follow from the BRST-invariance conditions for the vertex operators constructed in this paper. The gauge symmetries of the massless higher spins emerge as a result of the BRST nontriviality conditions for these operators, being equivalent to transformations with the traceless …
Nilpotency Property, Physicality Criteria, Constraints and Standard BRST Algebra: A 4D Field-Theoretic System
Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University（贝拿勒斯印度教大学理学院）；DST Center for Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University（贝拿勒斯印度教大学理学院 DST 交叉数学科学中心）
The Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) ghost field is a key element in constructing Witten's cubic open string field theory. However, to date, the ghost sector of the string field theory has not received a great deal of attention. In this study, we address the BRST ghost on multiple $Dp$-branes, which carries non-Abelian indices and couples to a non-Ablelian gauge field. We found that the massless components of the BRST ghost field can play the role of the Faddeev-Popov ghost in the non-Alelian gauge field, such that the string field theory maintains the local non-Abelian gauge invariance.
A recent progress in a gauge-invariant Lagrangian description of massive and massless half-integer higher-spin fields in AdS and Minkowski spaces is presented. The procedure is based on a BFV-BRST operator, encoding the initial conditions realized by constraints in a Fock space and extracting the higher-spin fields from unitary irreducible representations of the AdS (Poincare) group. The construction is applicable to higher-spin tensor fields with a multi-row Young tableaux.
The BRST formalism has played a fundamental role in the construction of bosonic closed string backgrounds, ie. the stringy analogs of classical solutions to the field equations of general relativity. The concept of a string background has been extended to the notion of $W$-strings, where the BRST symmetry is still largely conjectural. More recently, the BRST formalism has entered the construction of two dimensional topological conformal quantum field theories, such as those that arise from Calabi-Yau varieties. In this lecture, we focus on common features of the BRST cohomology algebras of str…
Arbitrary spin free massless bosonic fields propagating in even $d$ - dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetime are investigated. Free wave equations of motion, subsidiary conditions and the corresponding gauge transformations for such fields are proposed. The lowest eigenvalues of the energy operator for the massless fields and the gauge parameter fields are derived. The results are formulated in $SO(d-1,2)$ covariant form as well as in terms of intrinsic coordinates. An inter-relation of two definitions of masslessness based on gauge invariance and conformal invariance is discussed.
