Renormalization of Nielsen Identities

Abstract

We study renormalization of identities governing the dependence of 1PI Green's functions on gauge-fixing parameters. For general dimensionally regularized Yang-Mills theories with gauge groups being direct products of arbitrary compact simple Lie groups and U(1) groups coupled to scalar fields, we extend the well known analysis in Fermi gauges to the class of generalized 't Hoot gauges $R_{\xi,u}$, in which also symmetry under global gauge transformations is broken by the gauge-fixing procedure. We also discuss conditions ensuring homogeneity of the Nielsen identity satisfied by the effective potential.