Finite nilpotent symmetry in Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism

Abstract

We consider the Batalin-Vilkovisky formulation of both 1-form and 2-form gauge theories, in the context of generalized BRST transformations with finite field dependent parameter. In the usual Faddeev-Popov formulation of gauge theories such finite field dependent BRST (FFBRST) transformations do not leave the generating functionals invariant as the path integral measure changes in a non-trivial way for a finite transformations. Here we show that FFBRST transformation, with appropriate choice of finite field-dependent parameter, is symmetry of the generating functionals in the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism. The finite parameter is chosen in such a way that the contribution from the Jacobian of the path integral measure is adjusted with gauge fixed fermions which do not change the generating functionals. Several examples for such a finite parameters are constructed.