BRST cohomology of timelike Liouville theory

Abstract

We compute the Hermitian sector of the relative BRST cohomology of the spacelike and timelike Liouville theories with generic real central charge $c_L$ in each case, coupled to a spacelike Coulomb gas and a generic transverse CFT. This paper is a companion of arXiv:1905.12689, and its main goal is to completely characterize the cohomology of the timelike theory with $c_L \le 1$ which was defined there. We also apply our formulas to revisit the BRST cohomology of the spacelike Liouville theory with $c_L > 1$, which includes generalized minimal gravity. We prove a no-ghost theorem for the Hermitian sector in the timelike theory and for some spacelike models.