Quantization of Generally Covariant Systems

Abstract

Finite dimensional models that mimic the constraint structure of Einstein's General Relativity are quantized in the framework of BRST and Dirac's canonical formalisms. The first system to be studied is one featuring a constraint quadratic in the momenta (the "super-Hamiltonian") and a set of constraints linear in the momenta (the "supermomentum" constraints). The starting point is to realize that the ghost contributions to the supermomentum constraint operators can be read in terms of the natural volume induced by the constraints in the orbits. This volume plays a fundamental role in the construction of the quadratic sector of the nilpotent BRST charge. It is shown that the quantum theory is invariant under scaling of the super-Hamiltonian. As long as the system has an intrinsic time, this property translates in a contribution of the potential to the kinetic term. In this aspect, the results substantially differ from other works where the scaling invariance is forced by introducing a coupling to the curvature. The contribution of the potential, far from being unnatural, is beautifully justified in the light of the Jacobi's principle. Then, it is shown that the obtained results can be extended to systems with extrinsic time. In this case, if the metric has a conformal temporal Killing vector and the potential exhibits a suitable behavior with respect to it, the role played by the potential in the case of intrinsic time is now played by the norm of the Killing vector. Finally, the results for the previous cases are extended to a system featuring two super-Hamiltonian constraints. This step is extremely important due to the fact that General Relativity features an infinite number of such constraints satisfying a non trivial algebra among themselves.