Flow Equations and BRS Invariance for Yang-Mills Theories

Abstract

Flow equations describe the evolution of the effective action $\Gamma_k$ in the process of varying an infrared cutoff $k$. The presence of the infrared cutoff explicitly breaks gauge and hence BRS invariance. We derive modified Slavnov-Taylor identities, which are valid for nonvanishing $k$. They guarantee the BRS invariance of $\Gamma_k$ for $k\to0$, and hence allow the study of non-abelian gauge theories by integrating the flow equations. Within a perturbative expansion of $\Gamma_k$, we derive an equation for a $k$ dependent mass term for the gauge fields implied by the modified Slavnov-Taylor identities.