Absolutely anticommuting (anti-)BRST symmetry transformations for topologically massive Abelian gauge theory

TL;DR

This paper establishes the existence of nilpotent and absolutely anticommuting BRST and anti-BRST symmetries in a 4D topologically massive Abelian gauge theory, highlighting the role of a Curci-Ferrari restriction and superfield formalism.

Contribution

It demonstrates the absolute anticommutativity of (anti-) BRST symmetries in a topologically massive Abelian gauge theory using superfield formalism and Curci-Ferrari restriction.

Findings

Confirmed nilpotent and absolutely anticommuting (anti-) BRST symmetries.

Derived the Curci-Ferrari type restriction from superfield formalism.

Provided geometrical interpretation of topological term invariance.

Abstract

We demonstrate the existence of the nilpotent and absolutely anticommuting Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) and anti-BRST symmetry transformations for the four (3 + 1)-dimensional (4D) topologically massive Abelian U(1) gauge theory that is described by the coupled Lagrangian densities (which incorporate the celebrated (B \wedge F) term). The absolute anticommutativity of the (anti-) BRST symmetry transformations is ensured by the existence of a Curci-Ferrari type restriction that emerges from the superfield formalism as well as from the equations of motion that are derived from the above coupled Lagrangian densities. We show the invariance of the action from the point of view of the symmetry considerations as well as superfield formulation. We discuss, furthermore, the topological term within the framework of superfield formalism and provide the geometrical meaning of its invariance under the (anti-) BRST symmetry transformations.