Odd coset quantum mechanics

Abstract

The standard quantum states of $n$ complex Grassmann variables with a free-particle Lagrangian transform as a spinor of SO(2n). However, the same `free-fermion' model has a non-linearly realized $SU(n|1)$ symmetry; it can be viewed as the mechanics of a `particle' on the Grassmann-odd coset space $SU(n|1)/U(n)$. We implement a quantization of this model for which the states with non-zero norm transform as a representation of $SU(n|1)$, the representation depending on the U(1) charge of the wave-function. For $n=2$ the wave-function can be interpreted as a BRST superfield.