Solution of the Master Equation in Terms of the Odd Time Formulation

Abstract

A systematic way of formulating the Batalin-Vilkovisky method of quantization was obtained in terms of the ``odd time'' formulation. We show that in a class of gauge theories it is possible to find an ``odd time lagrangian'' yielding, by a Legendre transformation, an ``odd time hamiltonian'' which is the minimal solution of the master equation. This constitutes a very simple method of finding the minimal solution of the master equation which is usually a tedious task. To clarify the general procedure we discussed its application to Yang-Mills theory, massive (abelian) theory in Stueckelberg formalism, relativistic particle and the self-interacting antisymmetric tensor field.