Open superstring field theory I: gauge fixing, ghost structure, and propagator

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gauge fixing, ghost structure, and propagators in open superstring field theory using the WZW formulation, revealing unique ghost number ranges and deriving the master action in the BV formalism.

Contribution

It provides a detailed gauge fixing procedure, ghost structure analysis, and propagator calculations specific to open superstring field theory in the WZW framework, including the master action formulation.

Findings

Ghost number ranges over all integers except one

Finite picture numbers at fixed ghost number

Derived propagators in various gauges

Abstract

The WZW form of open superstring field theory has linearized gauge invariances associated with the BRST operator Q and the zero mode eta_0 of the picture minus-one fermionic superconformal ghost. We discuss gauge fixing of the free theory in a simple class of gauges using the Faddeev-Popov method. We find that the world-sheet ghost number of ghost and antighost string fields ranges over all integers, except one, and at any fixed ghost number, only a finite number of picture numbers appear. We calculate the propagators in a variety of gauges and determine the field-antifield content and the free master action in the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism. Unlike the case of bosonic string field theory, the resulting master action is not simply related to the original gauge-invariant action by relaxing the constraint on the ghost and picture numbers.