BRST, anti-BRST and gerbes

Abstract

We discuss BRST and anti--BRST transformations for an Abelian antisymmetric gauge field in 4D and find that, in order for them to anticommute, we have to impose a condition on the auxiliary fields. This condition is similar to the Curci-Ferrari condition for the 4D non--Abelian 1-form gauge theories and represents a consistency requirement. We interpret it as a signal that our Abelian 2-form gauge field theory is based on gerbes. To support this interpretation we discuss, in particular, the case of the 1-gerbe for our present field theory and write the relevant equations and symmetry transformations for 2-gerbes.

11 pages, typo corrected in eq.(3,8,24)

References in corpus (10)

• Lectures on Special Lagrangian Submanifolds
• Twisted K-theory and K-theory of bundle gerbes
• WZW branes and gerbes
• Nonabelian Bundle Gerbes, their Differential Geometry and Gauge Theory
• Bundle Gerbes Applied to Quantum Field Theory
• Hodge decomposition theorem for Abelian two form gauge theory
• Abelian 2-form gauge theory: special features
• Gerbes and Massive Type II Configurations
• Gerbes and Duality
• Gerbes and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

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