Observables in Topological Yang-Mills Theories

Abstract

Using topological Yang-Mills theory as example, we discuss the definition and determination of observables in topological field theories (of Witten-type) within the superspace formulation proposed by Horne. This approach to the equivariant cohomology leads to a set of bi-descent equations involving the BRST and supersymmetry operators as well as the exterior derivative. This allows us to determine superspace expressions for all observables, and thereby to recover the Donaldson-Witten polynomials when choosing a Wess-Zumino-type gauge.

39 pages, Latex

References in corpus (3)

• Local BRST cohomology in gauge theories
• Gauge and Topological Symmetries in the Bulk Quantization of Gauge Theories
• Note on Constrained Cohomology

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Absence of radiative corrections in 4-dimensional topological Yang-Mills theories
• Correspondence between the twisted $N=2$ super-Yang-Mills and conformal Baulieu-Singer theories
• Observables in Topological Yang-Mills Theories With Extended Shift Supersymmetry
• Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a non-Abelian topological gauge theory
• Topological Gravity on $(D,N)-$Shift Superspace Formulation