Jet Bundles in Quantum Field Theory: The BRST-BV method

Abstract

The geometric interpretation of the Batalin-Vilkovisky antibracket as the Schouten bracket of functional multivectors is examined in detail. The identification is achieved by the process of repeated contraction of even functional multivectors with fermionic functional 1-forms. The classical master equation may then be considered as a generalisation of the Jacobi identity for Poisson brackets, and the cohomology of a nilpotent even functional multivector is identified with the BRST cohomology. As an example, the BRST-BV formulation of gauge fixing in theories with gauge symmetries is reformulated in the jet bundle formalism. (Hopefully this version will be TeXable)

26 pages

References in corpus (4)

• On possible generalizations of field--antifield formalism
• Geometric Interpretation of the Quantum Master Equation in the BRST--anti-BRST Formalism
• Hamiltonian BRST-anti-BRST Theory
• On the Quantization of Reducible Gauge Systems

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Local BRST cohomology in the antifield formalism: I. General theorems
• Isomorphisms between the Batalin-Vilkovisky antibracket and the Poisson bracket
• Structure of Higher Spin Gauge Interactions
• The geometry of variations in Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism
• BV equivalence with boundary
• Multisymplectic Constraint Analysis of Scalar Field Theories, Chern-Simons Gravity, and Bosonic String Theory
• Homological evolutionary vector fields in Korteweg-de Vries, Liouville, Maxwell, and several other models
• Axiomatic classical (prequantum) field theory. Jet formalism
• Axiomatic quantum field theory. Jet formalism