Structure of BRS-Invariant Local Functionals

Abstract

For a large class of gauge theories a nilpotent BRS-operator $s$ is constructed and its cohomology in the space of local functionals of the off-shell fields is shown to be isomorphic to the cohomology of $\4s=s+d$ on functions $f(\4C,\PH)$ of tensor fields $\PH$ and of variables $\4C$ which are constructed of the ghosts and the connection forms. The result allows general statements about the structure of invariant classical actions and anomaly candidates whose BRS-variation vanishes off-shell. The assumptions under which the result holds are thoroughly discussed.