Quantization of gauge theory for gauge dependent operators

Abstract

Based on a canonically derived path integral formalism, we demonstrate that the perturbative calculation of the matrix element for gauge dependent operators has crucial difference from that for gauge invariant ones. For a gauge dependent operator ${\cal O}(\phi)$ what appears in the Feynman diagrams is not ${\cal O} (\phi)$ itself, but the gauge-transformed one ${\cal O}(^\omega \phi)$, where $\omega$ characterizes the specific gauge transformation which brings any field variable into the particular gauge which we have adopted to quantize the gauge theory using the canonical method. The study of the matrix element of gauge dependent operators also reveals that the formal path integral formalism for gauge theory is not always reliable.