Superfield Quantization

TL;DR

This paper develops a superfield approach to quantization of constrained theories, providing an operator framework, phase-space path integral formulation, and superspace analogs of key theorems and formalisms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel superfield formulation for quantization, unifying BRST and canonical transformations, and extends the field-antifield formalism into superspace.

Findings

Established a superfield operator quantization framework.

Derived a superspace version of the BFV theorem.

Presented a superfield Lagrangian formalism via phase-space integration.

Abstract

We present a superfield formulation of the quantization program for theories with first class constraints. An exact operator formulation is given, and we show how to set up a phase-space path integral entirely in terms of superfields. BRST transformations and canonical transformations enter on equal footing, and they allow us to establish a superspace analog of the BFV theorem. We also present a formal derivation of the Lagrangian superfield analogue of the field-antifield formalism, by an integration over half of the phase-space variables.