Odd Scalar Curvature in Field-Antifield Formalism

TL;DR

This paper introduces a geometric interpretation of an odd scalar curvature in the field-antifield formalism, showing how it relates to the odd Laplacian and its compatibility with antisymplectic structures.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the odd function u is determined by the antisymplectic structure and density, and interprets u as the odd scalar curvature, extending the formalism to non-flat line bundle connections.

Findings

u is specified by antisymplectic structure E and density ho

u can be interpreted as the odd scalar curvature

The construction generalizes to non-flat line bundle connections

Abstract

We consider the possibility of adding a Grassmann-odd function \nu to the odd Laplacian. Requiring the total \Delta operator to be nilpotent leads to a differential condition for \nu, which is integrable. It turns out that the odd function \nu is not an independent geometric object, but is instead completely specified by the antisymplectic structure E and the density \rho. The main impact of introducing the \nu term is that it makes compatibility relations between E and \rho obsolete. We give a geometric interpretation of \nu as (minus 1/8 times) the odd scalar curvature of an arbitrary antisymplectic, torsion-free and \rho-compatible connection. We show that the total \Delta operator is a \rho-dressed version of Khudaverdian's \Delta_E operator, which takes semidensities to semidensities. We also show that the construction generalizes to the situation where \rho is replaced by a non-flat line bundle connection F. This generalization is implemented by breaking the nilpotency of \Delta with an arbitrary Grassmann-even second-order operator source.