Lagrangian approach to local symmetries and self-dual model in gauge invariant formulation

Abstract

Taking the St\"uckelberg Lagrangian associated with the abelian self-dual model of P.K. Townsend et al as a starting point, we embed this mixed first- and second-class system into a pure first-class system by following systematically the generalized Hamiltonian approach of Batalin, Fradkin and Tyutin. The resulting Lagrangian possesses an extended gauge invariance and provides a non-trivial example for a general Lagrangian approach to unravelling the full set of local symmetries of a Lagrangian.