The relativistic top: An application of the BFV quantization procedure for systems with degenerate constraints

Abstract

The physical phase space of the relativistic top, as defined by Hanson and Regge, is expressed in terms of canonical coordinates of the Poincar\'e group manifold. The system is described in the Hamiltonian formalism by the mass shell condition and constraints that reduce the number of spin degrees of freedom. The constraints are second class and are modified into a set of first class constraints by adding combinations of gauge fixing functions. The Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky (BFV) method is then applied to quantize the system in the path integral formalism in Hamiltonian form. It is finally shown that different gauge choices produce different equivalent forms of the constraints.