2D Yang-Mills Theories, Gauge Orbit Space and The Path Integral Quantization

Abstract

The role of a physical phase space structure in a classical and quantum dynamics of gauge theories is emphasized. In particular, the gauge orbit space of Yang-Mills theories on a cylindrical spacetime (space is compactified to a circle) is shown to be the Weyl cell for a semisimple compact gauge group, while the physical phase space coincides with the quotient $\R^{2r}/W_A$, $r$ a rank of a gauge group, $W_A$ the affine Weyl group. The transition amplitude between two points of the gauge orbit space (between two Wilson loops) is represented via a Hamiltonian path integral over the physical phase space and explicitly calculated. The path integral formula appears to be modified by including trajectories reflected from the boundary of the physical configuration space (of the Weyl cell) into the sum over pathes. The Gribov problem of gauge fixing ambiguities is considered and its solution is proposed in the framework of the path integral modified. Artifacts of gauge fixing are qualitatively analyzedwith a simple mechanical example. A relation between a gauge-invariant description and a gauge fixing procedure is established.