Irreducible antifield formalism for reducible constrained Hamiltonian systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces an irreducible antifield formalism for quantizing reducible constrained Hamiltonian systems, simplifying the BRST approach by constructing an equivalent irreducible theory.

Contribution

It presents a novel method to convert reducible systems into equivalent irreducible ones for BRST quantization, enhancing the theoretical framework.

Findings

Successfully applied to abelian gauge fields

Maintains physical equivalence between original and irreducible systems

Simplifies the quantization process for reducible constraints

Abstract

Reducible constrained Hamiltonian systems are quantized accordingly an irreducible BRST manner. Our procedure is based on the construction of an irreducible theory which is physically equivalent with the original one. The equivalence between the two systems makes legitimate the substitution of the BRST quantization for the reducible theory by that of the irreducible system. The general formalism is illustrated in detail on a model involving abelian one- and two-form gauge fields.