Non-Quadratic Gauge Fixing and Global Gauge Invariance in the Effective Action

Abstract

The possibility of having a gauge fixing term in the effective Lagrangian that is not a quadratic expression has been explored in spin-two theories so as to have a propagator that is both traceless and transverse. We first show how this same approach can be used in spontaneously broken gauge theories as an alternate to the 't Hooft gauge fixing which avoids terms quadratic in the scalar fields. This "non-quadratic" gauge fixing in the effective action results in there being two complex Fermionic and one real Bosonic ghost fields. A global gauge invariance involving a Fermionic gauge parameter, analogous to the usual BRST invariance, is present in this effective action.

4 pages, revtex4 (submitted to Phys. Rev. D)

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Radiative Corrections and the Palatini Action
• An Analysis of the First Order Form of Gauge Theories
• Non-Trivial Ghosts and Second Class Constraints
• Resummation of infrared divergences in the free-energy of spin-two fields
• Covariant Gauge Fixing and Canonical Quantization
• Non-Quadratic Gauge Fixing and Ghosts for Gauge Theories on the Hypersphere
• Quantizing the Palatini action using a transverse traceless propagator
• Multiple Gauge Fixing Conditions
• Treatment of a System with Explicitly Broken Gauge Symmetries