On the gauge dependence of the topological sigma model beta functions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the beta functions in the topological sigma model depend on gauge parameters and that their values are gauge artifacts, connecting different results through smooth gauge variations.

Contribution

It reveals the gauge dependence of the topological sigma model beta functions and shows they are gauge artifacts, unifying previous results through gauge parameter variation.

Findings

Beta functions depend on gauge parameters.

Different beta function values are connected by gauge variation.

Beta functions are gauge artifacts, not physical quantities.

Abstract

We compute the dependence on the classical action "gauge" parameters of the beta functions of the standard topological sigma model in flat space. We thus show that their value is a "gauge" artifact indeed. We also show that previously computed values of these beta functions can be continuously connected to one another by smoothly varying those gauge parameters.