BRST symmetry: Boundary conditions and edge states in QED

Nirmalendu Acharyya, A. P. Balachandran, Verónica Errasti Díez, P. N. Bala Subramanian, and Sachindeo Vaidya

Phys. Rev. D 94, 085026 – Published 27 October 2016

Abstract

In manifolds with spatial boundary, BRST formalism can be used to quantize gauge theories. We show that, in a $U (1)$ gauge theory, only a subset of all the boundary conditions allowed by the self-adjointness of the Hamiltonian preserves BRST symmetry. Hence, the theory can be quantized using BRST formalism only when that subset of boundary conditions is considered. We also show that for such boundary conditions, there exist fermionic states which are localized near the boundary.

Received 24 July 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.085026

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gauge theories Quantum electrodynamics

Particles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Nirmalendu Acharyya^1,*, A. P. Balachandran^2,3,†, Verónica Errasti Díez^4,‡, P. N. Bala Subramanian^5,§, and Sachindeo Vaidya^5,∥

¹Optique Nonlinéaire Théorique, Université libre de Bruxelles (U.L.B.), Bruxelles CP 231, Belgium
²Physics Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244-1130, USA
³Institute of Mathematical Sciences, C.I.T Campus, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600113, India
⁴Physics Department, McGill University, 3600 University St., Montreal, QC H3A 2T8, Canada
⁵Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India

^*Nirmalendu.Acharyya@ulb.ac.be
^†balachandran38@gmail.com
^‡vediez@physics.mcgill.ca
^§pnbalasubramanian@gmail.com
^∥vaidya@cts.iisc.ernet.in

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Issue

Vol. 94, Iss. 8 — 15 October 2016

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