Physical state condition in Quantum General Relativity as a consequence of BRST symmetry

TL;DR

This paper derives a BRST symmetry-based physical state condition in quantum general relativity, highlighting differences from the Dirac approach and connecting to Ashtekar's formulation.

Contribution

It introduces a BRST symmetry framework for quantum gravity, providing a new perspective on physical state conditions linked to gauge invariance.

Findings

BRST-based physical state condition differs from Dirac's method

Connection established between BRST invariance and Ashtekar's formulation

Framework suggests a unified approach to gauge symmetries in quantum gravity

Abstract

Quantization of systems with constraints can be carried on with several methods. In the Dirac formulation the classical generators of gauge transformations are required to annihilate physical quantum states to ensure their gauge invariance. Carrying on BRST symmetry it is possible to get a condition on physical states which, differently from the Dirac method, requires them to be invariant under the BRST transformation. Employing this method for the action of general relativity expressed in terms of the spin connection and tetrad fields with path integral methods, we construct the generator of BRST transformation associated with the underlying local Lorentz symmetry of the theory and write a physical state condition consequence of BRST invariance. We observe that this condition differs form the one obtained within Ashtekar's canonical formulation, showing how we recover the latter only by a suitable choice of the gauge fixing functionals. We finally discuss how it should be possible to obtain all the requested physical state conditions associated with all the underlying gauge symmetries of the classical theory using our approach.