format: text

text:
# Ghost constraints and the covariant quantization of the superparticle in ten dimensions

## 1 Introduction

The Brink-Schwarz superparticle action yields a manifestly super-Poincaré covariant, classical description of a free particle moving in superspace. However, covariant quantization has so far proved problematic.

Recently, Berkovits and collaborators have proposed a separate, super-Poincaré covariant model for the $`D=10`$, $`N=1`$ superparticle  which began initially as a superstring model . Also, in , the heterotic Berkovits string was derived from the $`n=2`$ superembedding formulation, and an alternative covariant approach without pure spinors was suggested in , which we discuss in more detail in section 3.2.

The approach of Berkovits is derives from work by Howe , in which an on-shell superspace description of $`D=10`$ super Yang-Mills and supergravity is given as integrability conditions along pure spinor lines. Berkovits found a BRST operator, which we refer to as $`\widehat{Q}`$, with pure spinors as ghosts. The ghost number one state cohomology of $`\widehat{Q}`$ is covariant and corresponds exactly with the quanta of on-shell super-Maxwell theory, which is the correct spectrum for the $`D=10`$, $`N=1`$ superparticle. While this is pleasing, there are unsolved problems which we attempt to address in this article.

Firstly, there is a difficulty in finding a covariant description of the physical degrees of freedom of the pure spinor ghost and its conjugate momentum. Secondly, we require an inner product on the Hilbert space. Thirdly, a systematic study of the space of physical operators of the theory is needed, and a direct comparison to the physical operators of the light-cone gauge Brink-Schwarz superparticle should be made. Fourthly, there is an issue that the Berkovits BRST operator is not hermitian. Our findings on these problems are now discussed below.

1. Covariance: We argue later in section 3 that the pure spinor constraints should be treated as first class, i.e. as gauge generators. In order to describe the physical degrees of freedom of the constrained ghosts, one approach, as described in appendix D, is to completely gauge fix and solve the combined pure spinor and gauge fixing constraints explicitly using $`U(5)`$ co-ordinates, after first Wick-rotating from $`SO(9,1)`$ to $`SO(10)`$. This approach has much in common with taking the light-cone gauge for the bosonic particle. In both cases, only the physical degrees of freedom remain after gauge fixing. Also, Lorentz invariance is broken, in the case of pure spinors from $`SO(10)`$ to $`U(5)`$, and in the case of the particle to $`SO(8)`$.

It seems natural, just as with the bosonic particle, to attempt a BRST approach in which instead of removing unphysical degrees of freedom, the phase space is expanded with extra ghosts thus maintaining covariance. Physical operators and states are then regained through a BRST cohomology.

There are however extra subtleties involved in imposing ghost constraints as opposed to ordinary constraints. In particular, the ghost constraints cannot be combined into the Berkovits BRST operator. We find that the solution is to introduce a second BRST operator, $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, which simply implements the pure spinor constraints. The Berkovits BRST operator, $`\widehat{Q}`$, then becomes nilpotent modulo $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$. The pair of BRST operators form what is known as a BRST double complex.

The pure spinor constraints are reducible, thus ghost for ghost terms are required. So far these terms have been calculated up to level 4. As the number of ghosts for ghosts increases level by level, it seems likely that infinitely many terms will be required. This is not definite though as no pattern has been found, and there is no unique choice of term at each level. Despite this problem, we find that by choosing a suitable representative from each cohomology class, the ghost part factors out in any matrix element calculation of a physical operator between two states. Also, the state cohomology is not affected by this difficulty.
2. The inner product: Using the natural Schrödinger measure, the norm of the Berkovits wavefunction is zero, so the question arises of how to define the inner product. Actually, this situation is normal for BRST quantization with no minimal sector using the Schrödinger representation. Take the bosonic particle for example. States in the Berkovits cohomology couple in the inner product to states in a dual cohomology at opposite ghost number. The solution is thus to find a map between the two cohomologies and place states of one cohomology on the left and states of the other on the right within the inner product. In the case of the bosonic particle, in order to obtain the dual ghost number $`1/2`$ wavefunction, you multiply the corresponding ghost number $`1/2`$ wavefunction by the $`c`$ ghost. In general, however, there is no simple map like this, and the dual cohomology has to be explicitly calculated.
3. The operator cohomology: The Berkovits operator cohomology does not correspond with the physical operators of the Brink-Schwarz superparticle. However, we discover that $`\widehat{Q}`$ indirectly implies ‘effective constraints’, which are not obviously present in the Berkovits BRST operator. These are simply related to the on-shell equations for super Yang-Mills. The operator cohomology modulo these effective constraints matches the physical operators of the Brink-Schwarz superparticle. Thus, the Berkovits and Brink-Schwarz superparticles are equivalent. We also find that these effective constraints are the first class constraints of the Brink-Schwarz particle.
4. Non-hermicity of $`\widehat{Q}`$: Naturally, this can only become an issue once we have defined an inner product. The solution is found in the definition of the inner product, or rather of the dual cohomology.

It should be noted that while issues 2), 3) and 4) are all solved using 1), in principle they can also be studied using $`U(5)`$ co-ordinates as in appendix D.

The paper is structured as follows. In section 2, we briefly review the Berkovits superparticle model, in section 3 we introduce the idea of the purity constraints being first class, in section 4 the general BRST formulation for theories with first class ghost constraints is detailed. In section 5, a simple example with linear ghost constraints is given, in section 6, we show how $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ is constructed to 4th level. In section 7, we finally build the superparticle model. We also make an analogy with Chern-Simons theory, and compare with the light-cone gauge Brink-Schwarz superparticle. In section 8, we show how our covariant method leads to anomaly cancellation for the open superstring and in section 9 we discuss plans for future research. The appendices mostly consist of relevant reference material. However, note that appendix D on the description of pure spinors using U(5) co-ordinates, is different to the usual Berkovits approach.

## 2 The D=10, N=1 Berkovits Superparticle

The Berkovits, BRST invariant superparticle action , which is in Hamiltonian form, is given by

$$S_B=𝑑\tau (\dot{X}^mP_m+\dot{\theta }^\alpha p_\alpha +\dot{\lambda }^\alpha w_\alpha \frac{1}{2}P_mP^m),$$
(2.1)
where variables $`X^m`$, $`\theta ^\alpha `$ are the usual $`D=10`$, $`N=1`$ superspace co-ordinates, and $`P_m`$, $`p_\alpha `$ their conjugate momenta with $`m=1\mathrm{}10`$ and $`\alpha =1\mathrm{}16`$. Also, $`\theta ^\alpha `$ and $`p_\alpha `$ are fermionic, Majorana-Weyl spinors of opposite chirality. The ghosts $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ and $`w_\alpha `$ are bosonic, complex, Weyl spinors with ghost numbers $`1`$ and $`1`$ respectively. The notation used for $`D=10`$ spinors and gamma matrices is described in appendix C.

Berkovits defines a BRST operator

$`\widehat{Q}=\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{d}_\alpha ,`$ $`\widehat{Q}^2=\widehat{P}_m\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m\widehat{\lambda }^\beta ,`$ (2.2)
where $`\widehat{d}_\alpha =\widehat{p}_\alpha i\widehat{P}_m(\gamma ^m\widehat{\theta })_\alpha `$ are the fermionic constraint functions of the Brink-Schwarz superparticle, and where $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha `$ are defined to obey ‘purity’ constraints

$`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m\widehat{\lambda }^\beta =0,`$ (2.3)
in order that $`\widehat{Q}`$ be nilpotent. As shown in appendix D, the purity constraints (2.3) leave $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ with 11, complex degrees of freedom.

Given ghost number operator $`\widehat{G}^{}=i\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha `$, the ghost number one, state cohomology $`H_{st}^1(\widehat{Q})`$ describes the physical modes of super-Maxwell theory in a superspace covariant way. Using the Schrödinger representation, we find

$`Q\psi =0,`$ $`\delta \psi =Q\varphi (X,\theta )`$ (2.4)
$`\gamma _{mnpqr}^{\alpha \beta }D_\alpha A_\beta =0,`$ $`\delta A_\alpha =D_\alpha \varphi `$ (2.5)
where $`\psi =\lambda ^\alpha A_\alpha (X,\theta )`$ and $`\varphi (X,\theta )`$ are generic ghost number one, and ghost number zero wavefunctions respectively, and where $`D_\alpha `$ is the usual covariant superspace derivative

$`D_\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{}{\theta ^\alpha }}i\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m\theta ^\beta _m,`$ $`\widehat{d}_\alpha iD_\alpha .`$ (2.6)
We have also used the identity

$$\lambda ^\alpha \lambda ^\beta =\frac{1}{16}\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda \gamma _m^{\alpha \beta }+\frac{1}{165!}\lambda \gamma ^{mnpqr}\lambda \gamma _{mnpqr}^{\alpha \beta },$$
(2.7)
which comes from equation (C.10), recalling that $`\gamma _{mnp}^{\alpha \beta }`$ is antisymmetric in $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, and so does not contribute. Equation (2.5) describes the equations of motion and gauge transformation for $`D=10`$, $`N=1`$ super-Maxwell theory. Therefore $`H_{st}^1(\widehat{Q})`$ corresponds exactly with the spectrum of the Brink-Schwarz superparticle in the light-cone gauge.

## 3 Pure spinor ghost constraints as first class Dirac constraints

### 3.1 The BRST double complex

In order to obtain the equations of motion for Berkovits’ superparticle, we should solve $`\delta S_B=0`$ on the constraint surface $`\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda `$=0. Equivalently, we define an action

$$S=𝑑\tau (\dot{X}^mP_m+\dot{\theta }^\alpha p_\alpha +\dot{\lambda }^\alpha w_\alpha \frac{1}{2}P_mP^m\mathrm{\Lambda }_m\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda ),$$
(3.1)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_m`$ are ghost number $`2`$, Lagrange multipliers, and then solve $`\delta S=0`$ globally. Since $`[\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda ,\lambda \gamma ^n\lambda ]=0`$, $`S`$ has the gauge symmetries

$`\delta _\epsilon \lambda ^\alpha =0,`$ $`\delta _\epsilon w_\alpha =2\epsilon _m(\gamma ^m\lambda )_\alpha ,`$ $`\delta _\epsilon \mathrm{\Lambda }_m=\dot{\epsilon }_m,`$ (3.2)
where $`\epsilon _m(\tau )`$ is a local, bosonic, ghost number $`2`$ parameter. Thus, the purity constraints can be interpreted as first class constraints. Observables should be gauge invariant with respect to the ghost constraints, as well as $`\widehat{Q}`$-closed, as already argued by Berkovits .

In order to covariantly quantize the ghosts, a BRST implementation of the gauge generators $`\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda `$ is required. We define a separate BRST operator $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, with its own associated anti-hermitian ghost number operator $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$

$`\widehat{Q}_{gc}=\widehat{C}_m\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }+\mathrm{},`$ $`\widehat{G}_{gc}={\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}(\widehat{C}_m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{C}_m+\mathrm{}),`$ (3.3)
where $`\widehat{C}_m`$ and $`\widehat{B}^m`$ are a fermionic conjugate pair of ghosts. Also, the ellipses refer to ghost for ghost terms, which are needed because the pure spinor constraints are reducible. Calculation of these terms is discussed in section 6. It should be noticed that the Berkovits ghosts $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ and $`w_\alpha `$ commute with $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$, and hence from from the point of view of $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ are treated as ordinary ghost number zero variables. Using this approach, $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ and $`w_\alpha `$ are unconstrained and the pure spinor constraints are realized through requiring physical operators and states to belong to the operator or state cohomology $`H(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$.

Since $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ are unconstrained, $`\widehat{Q}`$ is no longer nilpotent. However, we say that $`\widehat{Q}`$ is a BRST operator modulo $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, since

$`[\widehat{Q},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0,`$ $`\widehat{Q}^2=[i\widehat{B}^m\widehat{P}_m,\widehat{Q}_{gc}].`$ (3.4)
The first equation of (3.4) implies that $`\widehat{Q}`$ maps any cohomology class of $`H(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ onto another one, and the second that $`\widehat{Q}`$ is nilpotent within the phase-space defined by the cohomology $`H(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$. Physical operators and states are given by the cohomology of $`\widehat{Q}`$ within the cohomology of $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, which is denoted as $`H(\widehat{Q}|H(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$.

A pair of operators obeying the same general algebra as $`\widehat{Q}`$ and $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ is known as a double complex. This construction is common in mathematics, for example in the calculation of equivariant integrals. However, except for a mention in , this type of double complex does not seem to have been explored before in the context of two BRST operators.

In the remainder of this article, we describe how to implement this BRST double complex for a generic constrained ghost system, and in particular for the Berkovits superparticle.

### 3.2 Discussion of alternative approaches

As a non-covariant alternative to quantizing the pure spinor ghosts, we show in appendix D222Our approach to U(5) co-ordinates differs from that of Berkovits , which isn’t equivalent to a canonical gauge fixing of the first class pure spinor constraints, at least not with initial Poisson bracket $`[\lambda ^\alpha ,w_\beta ]=\delta _\beta ^\alpha `$. Our approach has the advantage of not requiring the fermionization of ghosts. how to construct canonical, gauge-fixing constraints, using $`U(5)`$ co-ordinates, which completely fix the gauge symmetry generated by $`\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda `$ in a certain region $`\lambda ^+0`$, where $`\lambda ^+`$ is defined in the appendix. This is similar in approach to imposing the light-cone gauge for the bosonic particle for example. There is an obvious disadvantage here that the Lorentz covariance is reduced to $`U(5)`$ covariance and also that it’s not valid for $`\lambda ^+=0`$.

One might expect to be able to build a single covariant BRST operator $`Q`$ with single ghost number, which implements both the Berkovits BRST operator (2.2) and the pure spinor constraints

$$Q=\lambda ^\alpha d_\alpha +b_m\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda +\mathrm{},$$
(3.5)
where $`b_m`$ are fermionic ghosts with ghost number -1 and where the dots refer to ‘closure’ terms, whose sole purpose is to ensure nilpotence of $`Q`$ off-shell, as opposed to ‘physical’ terms, which specify the gauge generators. However, it is impossible for $`Q`$ to be nilpotent without $`b_m\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda `$ becoming a ‘closure’ term and without introducing new, ‘physical’, gauge generator terms, which change the physical nature of the theory. It is then wrong to think of this term as introducing ghost constraints, since constraints are implemented only in the ‘physical’ terms.

Having said this, in the approach taken by Van Nieuwenhuizen and collaborators  for the covariant quantization of the superstring, they essentially begin with the above BRST operator (3.5) and through some procedure introduce new ‘physical’ and ‘closure’ terms until $`Q`$ becomes nilpotent. Now $`b_m\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda `$ becomes a ‘closure’ term, thus there are no longer pure spinor constraints. The resultant BRST operator isn’t directly equivalent to the Berkovits BRST operator due to the extra gauge generators, in fact its cohomology is null. Remarkably though, by restricting physical Vertex operators further to a certain subspace of all possible operators, the cohomology on this subspace, known as an equivariant cohomology, has been shown to be equivalent to the Berkovits cohomology for the open superstring, at least in the massless sector. The advantage of this approach is that there are no pure spinors, and hence this bypasses the problem of a covariant description of them. There is however an issue which needs clarification, which is why there is no central charge cancellation in ten dimensions.

## 4 Formal description of the method for arbitrary, first class ghost constraints

We now describe the general formulation for the operator quantization of a BRST system with first class ghost constraints. A path integral formulation is also provided in . No attempt will be made at this stage to interpret the constrained ghost quantum system, nor to determine suitable ghost constraints in the general case, since this depends on the particular system in question. Rather, we assume that the defining operators, which are the BRST invariant, bosonic Hamiltonian $`\widehat{H}`$ and the two, fermionic BRST operators $`\widehat{Q}`$ and $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, have already been constructed and we proceed to build the generic quantum system from them. Given ghost constraint, BRST operator $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ and corresponding ghost number operator $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$

$`\widehat{Q}_{gc}^2=0,`$ $`[\widehat{G}_{gc},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=\widehat{Q}_{gc},`$ (4.1)
the operators $`\widehat{Q}`$ and $`\widehat{G}`$ are $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed, since they must map between cohomology classes of $`H(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$

$`[\widehat{Q},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0,`$ $`[\widehat{G},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0.`$ (4.2)
Also

$`\widehat{Q}^20,`$ $`[\widehat{G},\widehat{Q}]\widehat{Q},`$ (4.3)
where

$`\widehat{A}\widehat{B}`$ $``$ $`\widehat{A}=\widehat{B}+[\widehat{C},\widehat{Q}_{gc}],`$ (4.4)
for some operator $`\widehat{C}`$. We will only consider theories where $`\widehat{G}`$ and $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$ commute, so that states can have both ghost numbers well-defined,

$$[\widehat{G},\widehat{G}_{gc}]=0.$$
(4.5)
Physical operators belong to the ghost number zero, operator cohomology of $`\widehat{Q}`$ within the ghost constraint ghost number zero, operator cohomology of $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, which we denote $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$. A physical operator $`\widehat{V}`$ thus obeys

$`[\widehat{V},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0,`$ $`[\widehat{V},\widehat{Q}]0`$ (4.6)
$`[\widehat{V},\widehat{G}_{gc}]=0,`$ $`[\widehat{V},\widehat{G}]0.`$ (4.7)
There are two types of BRST-exact term that one can add to $`\widehat{V}`$ in a BRST transformation

$`\widehat{V}\widehat{V}+[\widehat{U},\widehat{Q}]+[\widehat{U}_{gc},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]`$ $`\text{given }[\widehat{U},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0.`$ (4.8)
Similarly, a physical state $`\psi `$ belongs to the ghost number $`g`$, state cohomology of $`\widehat{Q}`$ within the ghost constraint ghost number $`k`$, state cohomology of $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, which we denote $`H_{st}^g(\widehat{Q}|H_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$. Thus, $`\psi `$ satisfies

$`\widehat{Q}_{gc}\psi =0,`$ $`\widehat{Q}\psi 0`$ (4.9)
$`\widehat{G}_{gc}\psi =k\psi ,`$ $`\widehat{G}\psi g\psi ,`$ (4.10)
where the ghost numbers $`g`$ and $`k`$ depend on various factors, for instance whether a Schrödinger or Fock representation is being used. Again, there are two types of BRST-exact terms that one can add to $`\psi `$ in a BRST transformation

$`\psi \psi +\widehat{Q}\chi +\widehat{Q}_{gc}\chi _{gc}`$ $`\text{given }\widehat{Q}_{gc}\chi =0.`$ (4.11)
The BRST invariant Hamiltonian $`\widehat{H}`$ is a physical, hermitian operator which belongs to $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$, and thus obeys equations (4.6) and (4.7). It is uniquely defined up to BRST-exact terms

$`\widehat{H}\widehat{H}+[\widehat{\chi }_{gc},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]+[\widehat{\chi },\widehat{Q}],`$ $`\text{where }[\widehat{\chi },\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0,`$ (4.12)
where $`\widehat{\chi }_{gc}`$ and $`\widehat{\chi }`$ are gauge-fixing fermions.

In general we require

$`\widehat{Q}_{gc}=\widehat{Q}_{gc}^{}`$ $`\widehat{Q}=\widehat{Q}^{},`$ (4.13)
in order that if $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}\psi =0`$, then $`(\psi ,\widehat{Q}_{gc}\varphi )=0`$ for arbitrary state $`\varphi `$, where $`(,)`$ is the inner product on the Hilbert space, and where a similar result applies for $`\widehat{Q}`$. However, in the special case of the Berkovits superparticle $`\widehat{Q}\widehat{Q}^{}`$ and $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}\widehat{Q}_{gc}^{}`$, since $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{\lambda }^\alpha `$ because $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ are classically complex. This problem is solved in section 7.3.2, in short by taking the complex conjugate of a wavefunction before placing it to the left in the inner product.

The most important consequence of (4.13) is that BRST exact operators have vanishing matrix elements between physical states

$`(\psi _m,[\widehat{U}_{gc},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]\psi _n)=0,`$ $`\text{for }\psi _mH_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ (4.14)
$`(\psi _m,[\widehat{U},\widehat{Q}]\psi _n)=0,`$ $`\text{for }\psi _mH_{st}^g(\widehat{Q}|H_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc})),`$ (4.15)
where we have also used that $`[\widehat{U},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0`$ and equation (4.9).

As a final observation, any operator $`\widehat{A}`$ belonging to $`H_{op}(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ can be meaningfully expressed as the matrix $`(\psi _m,\widehat{A}\psi _n)`$, where $`\{\psi _m\}`$ form a basis for $`H_{st}(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$. When equations involving such operators are written in matrix form, then the symbol $``$ can be replaced with an equals sign. For example,

$`(\psi _m,\widehat{Q}^2\psi _n)=0,`$ $`\text{given }\psi _mH_{st}(\widehat{Q}_{gc}).`$ (4.16)
## 5 An example of linear ghost constraints

We now illustrate the formal description of the last section with a simple example. We show how a BRST system with linear ghost constraints, specified by $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, can be related to a gauge theory with a single BRST operator.

###### Example 5.1 (A simple example).

Consider the motion of a particle described by the action

$$S=_{t_1}^{t_2}𝑑t(\frac{1}{2}(q^1)^2+\frac{1}{2}(\dot{q}^2)^2\frac{1}{2}(q^2)^2).$$
(5.1)
The Dirac-Bergmann algorithm yields second class constraints

$`p_1=0,`$ $`q^1=0,`$ (5.2)
where the first is primary and the second is secondary. The canonical Hamiltonian is

$$H=\frac{1}{2}(q^1)^2+\frac{1}{2}(p_2)^2+\frac{1}{2}(q^2)^2.$$
(5.3)
By using the Dirac bracket, or simply by parameterizing the constraint surface using only co-ordinates $`(q^2,p_2)`$, quantization is straightforward.

However, if we were to naively treat the constraints as if they were first class, we could construct the BRST operator

$`\widehat{Q}=\widehat{\eta }^1\widehat{q}^1+\widehat{\eta }^2\widehat{p}_1,`$ $`\widehat{Q}^2=i\widehat{\eta }^1\widehat{\eta }^2,`$ (5.4)
where $`(\widehat{\eta }^1,\widehat{𝒫}_1)`$ and $`(\widehat{\eta }^2,\widehat{𝒫}_2)`$ are fermionic ghost, ghost momenta pairs. Supposing the first class ghost constraint $`\widehat{\eta }^1=0`$ is introduced for example, by defining nilpotent BRST operator $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, and its corresponding anti-hermitian ghost operator $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$

$`\widehat{Q}_{gc}=\widehat{U}\widehat{\eta }^1,`$ $`\widehat{G}_{gc}={\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}(\widehat{U}\widehat{V}+\widehat{V}\widehat{U})`$ (5.5)
where $`\widehat{U}`$ and $`\widehat{V}`$ define a bosonic, ghost conjugate pair. The anti-hermitian, ghost number operator $`i/2(\widehat{\eta }^1\widehat{𝒫}_1\widehat{𝒫}_1\widehat{\eta }^1+\widehat{\eta }^2\widehat{𝒫}_2\widehat{𝒫}_2\widehat{\eta }^2)`$ is gauge invariant with respect to constraint $`\widehat{\eta }^1=0`$, but requires a BRST extension in order to become $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed

$$\widehat{G}=\frac{i}{2}(\widehat{\eta }^1\widehat{𝒫}_1\widehat{𝒫}_1\widehat{\eta }^1+\widehat{\eta }^2\widehat{𝒫}_2\widehat{𝒫}_2\widehat{\eta }^2(\widehat{U}\widehat{V}+\widehat{V}\widehat{U})).$$
(5.6)
We can now verify that the above definitions of $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, $`\widehat{Q}`$, $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$ and $`\widehat{G}`$ obey the required equations (4.1) to (4.5).

Now let us calculate the classical, physical functions. Since $`Q\eta ^2p_1`$, we deduce that

$$H^0(Q|H^0(Q_{gc}))H^0(\eta ^2p_1|C^{\mathrm{}}(q^i,p_i,\eta ^2,𝒫_2))C^{\mathrm{}}(q^2,p_2).$$
(5.7)
In effect, the ghosts $`U`$ and $`V`$ have cancelled the ghosts $`\eta ^1`$ and $`𝒫_1`$, thus establishing equivalence to an ordinary BRST theory, with BRST operator $`\eta ^2p_1`$ in phase-space defined by canonical co-ordinates $`(q^i,p_i,\eta ^2,𝒫_2)`$.

In this particular example, introducing the ghost constraint $`\eta ^1=0`$ is equivalent to removing the second class constraint $`q^1=0`$, which one can think of as a canonical gauge-fixing constraint, thus leaving only first class constraint $`p_1=0`$. The process of removing canonical gauge-fixing constraints is sometimes known as ‘gauge unfixing’ , which is also similar to ‘split involution’ . There is some similarity between our approach here and the recent projection operator approach to the BRST quantization of general constrained systems by Batalin et al. . There they also introduce ghosts for all the second class constraints, for the purpose of covariance. The extra ghost degrees of freedom are then cancelled by adding ghost for ghost terms to the BRST operator.

The Hamiltonian isn’t BRST invariant, since it isn’t gauge invariant with respect to $`p_1`$ because $`[H,p_1]=q^1`$ isn’t zero on $`p_1=0`$. Thus, we replace $`H`$ with gauge invariant Hamiltonian $`\stackrel{~}{H}`$, which possesses the properties

$`\stackrel{~}{H}|_{q^1=p_1=0}=H|_{q^1=p_1=0},`$ $`[\stackrel{~}{H},p_1]|_{p_1=0}=0.`$ (5.8)
A suitable choice is

$$\stackrel{~}{H}=\frac{1}{2}(q^2)^2+\frac{1}{2}(p_2)^2,$$
(5.9)
which is $`Q_{gc}`$-closed without need for further BRST extension.

We now calculate states and operators in the Schrödinger representation in order to observe how the classical equivalence shown in equation (5.7), is extended to a quantum mechanical equivalence. It is simpler to notice first that

$`\widehat{G}{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}(\widehat{\eta }^2\widehat{𝒫}_2\widehat{𝒫}_2\widehat{\eta }^2),`$ $`\widehat{Q}\widehat{\eta }^2\widehat{p}_1.`$ (5.10)
The ‘physical’ states in the ghost constraint cohomology appear at ghost constraint ghost numbers -1/2 and +1/2 defined by states $`\psi _{U=0}`$ and $`\psi _{V=0}`$ respectively, where in this notation,

$`\widehat{U}\psi _{U=0}=0,`$ $`\widehat{V}\psi _{V=0}=0,`$ $`(\psi _{U=0},\psi _{V=0})=1.`$ (5.11)
Thus, a basis for $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed wavefunctions with ghost constraint ghost numbers $`\pm 1/2`$ is given by

$`\psi _{1/2}(U,\eta ^1)=\delta (U)(a\eta ^1+b),`$ $`\psi _{1/2}(U,\eta ^1)=c\eta ^1,`$ (5.12)
where $`a`$, $`b`$ and $`c`$ are c-number constants. Note that $`a`$ can be transformed to zero by adding $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-exact state $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}\delta ^{}(U)a`$ to $`\psi _{1/2}`$. A generic, physical wavefunction $`\psi H_{st}^{\pm \frac{1}{2}}(\widehat{Q}|H^{\pm \frac{1}{2}}(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$ can be written as

$`\psi =\psi _{\pm \frac{1}{2}}(U,\eta ^1)\psi _m(\eta ^2,q^1,q^2),`$ given $`\widehat{Q}\psi _m(\eta ^2,q^1,q^2)=0.`$ (5.13)
All operators $`\widehat{F}H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$ can be written in the form

$$\widehat{F}=\widehat{F}_1(\widehat{\eta }^2,\widehat{𝒫}_2,\widehat{q}^i,\widehat{p}_i)+\widehat{F}_2(\widehat{U},\widehat{V},\widehat{\eta }^i,\widehat{𝒫}_i,\widehat{q}^i,\widehat{p}_i)\widehat{F}_1(\widehat{\eta }^2,\widehat{𝒫}_2,\widehat{q}^i,\widehat{p}_i).$$
(5.14)
This is because $`\widehat{F}_1`$ is separately $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed, being independent of $`\widehat{V}`$ and $`\widehat{𝒫}_1`$, and since $`H^0(Q_{gc})C^{\mathrm{}}(q^i,p_i,\eta ^2,𝒫_2)`$, $`\widehat{F}_2`$ must be $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-exact. Therefore the most general matrix element of physical operator $`\widehat{F}`$ between two physical states is

$$\begin{array}{c}\hfill (\psi _{\frac{1}{2}}(U,\eta ^1)\psi _m(\eta ^2,q^1,q^2),\widehat{F}\psi _n(\eta ^2,q^1,q^2)\psi _{\frac{1}{2}}(U,\eta ^1))\\ \hfill =(\psi _m(\eta ^2,q^1,q^2),\widehat{F}_1(\widehat{\eta }^2,\widehat{𝒫}_2,\widehat{q}^i,\widehat{p}_i)\psi _n(\eta ^2,q^1,q^2)),\end{array}$$
(5.15)
given $`b=c=1`$, where to obtain the second line, we have integrated out $`\eta ^1`$ and $`U`$ in the Schrödinger inner product. Thus, we have seen how quantum mechanically, the above system is equivalent to a gauge theory with single BRST operator $`\widehat{Q}=\widehat{\eta }^2\widehat{p}_1`$ and phase space co-ordinates $`(\widehat{q}^i,\widehat{p}_i,\widehat{\eta }^2,\widehat{𝒫}_2)`$.

## 6 The pure spinor BRST operator $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$

As already mentioned in section 3, the pure spinor constraints $`\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda =0`$ are reducible and hence $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ requires ghost for ghost terms. Unfortunately, only terms up to the fourth level of ghosts for ghosts have been found so far. It is not yet known whether a covariant termination will exist or whether infinite ghosts for ghosts will be needed. In section 7, we nominally specify $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ up to the 2nd level of ghosts, which is just high enough in order to spot any patterns in the BRST extension of $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed operators. Without a full solution, there is no advantage in specifying $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ to the highest known level of ghosts.

We proceed with a brief recipe describing how to build a generic BRST operator with reducible constraints , and then build the reducibility identities up to level 4 and $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ up to level 2.

### 6.1 A recipe for the construction of a BRST charge with reducible constraints

We begin with a set of first class constraints

$`g_{a_0}=0`$ $`a_0=1,\mathrm{},m_0,`$ (6.1)
of which $`mm_0`$ are independent. We define $`Z_1`$ with the properties

$`(Z_1)_{a_1}^{}{}_{}{}^{a_0}g_{a_0}=`$ $`0,`$ $`a_1=1,\mathrm{},m_1`$ (6.2)
$`\text{Rank }(Z_1)_{a_1}^{}{}_{}{}^{a_0}`$ $`m_0m,`$ (6.3)
where $`AB`$ implies that $`A`$ is equal to $`B`$ on the constraint surface $`g_{a_0}=0`$. So $`Z_1`$ not only annihilates $`g_{a_0}`$ globally in phase-space, but also describes all $`(m_0m)`$ vanishing linear combinations of the gauge generators locally on the constraint surface, since $`(Z_1)_{a_1}^{}{}_{}{}^{a_0}[g_{a_0},F]0`$, for any function $`F`$. The order $`k`$ reducibility identity describes all vanishing linear combinations of $`Z_{k1}`$

$`(Z_k)_{a_k}^{}{}_{}{}^{a_{k1}}(Z_{k1})_{a_{k1}}^{}{}_{}{}^{a_{k2}}0,`$ $`a_k=1,\mathrm{}m_k.`$ (6.4)
where

$`\text{Rank }(Z_k)_{a_k}^{}{}_{}{}^{a_{k1}}m_k^{},`$ $`m_k^{}=m_{k1}m_{k1}^{}.`$ (6.5)
We keep building more $`Z_k`$’s until there are no vanishing combinations left, i.e. until $`\text{Rank }Z_km_k`$, or until we establish a pattern if there are infinite $`Z_k`$’s. For theories with finite reducibility level $`L`$, we can express the number of independent constraints $`m`$ as

$$m=\underset{i=0}{\overset{L}{}}()^im_i.$$
(6.6)
We introduce conjugate ghost pairs for every $`Z_k`$ as follows

$`\eta ^{a_k},`$ $`\epsilon (\eta ^{a_k})=\epsilon _{a_0}+k+1,`$ $`\text{gh }\eta ^{a_k}=1+k`$ (6.7)
$`𝒫_{a_k},`$ $`\epsilon (\eta ^{a_k})=\epsilon _{a_0}+k+1,`$ $`\text{gh }𝒫_{a_k}=1k,`$ (6.8)
where $`\epsilon `$ describes the Grassmann number and ‘gh’, the ghost number. Also, the Poisson bracket is as usual

$$[𝒫_{a_k},\eta ^{b_j}]=()^{\epsilon _{a_0}+k}\delta _{a_k}^{b_k}\delta _{kj}.$$
(6.9)
We finally define the boundary terms in the ghost number one, fermionic BRST charge

$$Q=\eta ^{a_0}g_{a_0}+\underset{k=1}{\overset{L}{}}(\eta ^{a_k}(Z_k)_{a_k}^{}{}_{}{}^{a_{k1}}𝒫_{a_k1})+\text{‘more’},$$
(6.10)
where it can be shown that the requirement $`[Q,Q]=0`$ determines the rest of the terms, and that $`Q`$ is unique up to a canonical transformation.

### 6.2 Construction of the pure spinor BRST operator

As shown in appendix D, the 16 component, pure spinor $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ possesses exactly 11 independent complex degrees of freedom. This means that of the 10, complex, pure spinor constraints, only 5 are independent and ghost for ghost terms are needed in $`Q_{gc}`$. Information required to build $`Q_{gc}`$ to level 4 is summarized in table 1 below.

We define $`k`$, $`m_k`$ and $`Z_k`$ as in section 6.1, where $`Z_0`$ corresponds to the pure spinor constraints. The rank of the reducibility matrix $`Z_k`$ is calculated on-shell and $`Z_k`$ must be chosen such that $`\text{Rank }Z_k`$ is exactly equal to the number of redundant linear combinations contained in $`Z_{k1}`$ as in equation 6.5. Ghosts denoted by $`(C,B)`$ are fermionic conjugate pairs and those by $`(U,V)`$ are bosonic. We define $`\epsilon `$ to be the Grassmann parity of the ghosts and $`gh_{gc}`$ the ghost constraint ghost number.

As there appears to be no obvious analytical way of deriving ranks, they were calculated numerically for particular pure values of $`\lambda ^\alpha `$, using the computer software package Maple. It is expected that the ranks remain constant for all pure values of $`\lambda ^\alpha `$, though no proof of this is provided here.

There are some further subtleties here. Notice that $`C^{np}`$ has 46 components, since it consists of an antisymmetric piece, with 45 components, and a trace piece with just one component. Note also that $`Z_3`$ consists of the sum of the antisymmetric and trace piece, with respect to $`n,p`$, of $`(\lambda \gamma ^n)_\beta \delta _q^p`$.

Below are the reducibility identities, the first of which (6.11) completely describes the redundancy in the constraints as in equation (6.2). Successive identities take the form $`Z_kZ_{k1}0`$ as in (6.4). The complete equations for $`Z_4Z_30`$ consist of two identities (6.14) and (6.15), whereas the rest require just one equation. The gamma matrix identities in appendix C may be used to confirm them.

$`(\gamma _m\lambda )_\alpha \lambda \gamma ^m\lambda =0,`$ (6.11)
$`(\lambda \gamma _n\gamma _p)^\alpha (\lambda \gamma _m)_\alpha =\lambda \gamma _m\lambda \eta _{np}+\lambda \gamma _n\lambda \eta _{pm}\lambda \gamma _p\lambda \eta _{nm}0,`$ (6.12)
$`[(\lambda \gamma ^{[n})_\beta \delta _q^{p]}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{10}}(\lambda \gamma _q)_\beta \eta ^{np}](\lambda \gamma _n\gamma _p)_\alpha ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\lambda \gamma ^n\lambda (\gamma _n\gamma _p)_\beta ^\alpha 0,`$ (6.13)
$`[(\lambda \gamma ^{rs})^\beta \eta ^{tq}][(\lambda \gamma ^{[n})_\beta \delta _q^{p]}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{10}}(\lambda \gamma _q)_\beta \eta ^{np}]0,`$ (6.14)
$`[\delta _{(\eta }^\beta (\lambda \gamma ^q)_{\gamma )}][(\lambda \gamma ^{[n})_\beta \delta _q^{p]}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{10}}(\lambda \gamma _q)_\beta \eta ^{np}]0.`$ (6.15)
Let us study the first level reducibility condition (6.11), in detail. We firstly confirm the reducibility condition using the Fierz identity of equation (C.11). There are $`m_1=16`$ linear combinations of $`\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda `$, denoted by $`Z_1=(\gamma _m\lambda )_\alpha `$, which disappear globally. We calculate, using Maple, that $`\text{Rank }(\gamma _m\lambda )_\alpha 5`$, so there are only 5 linearly independent combinations, which match the 5 redundant constraints in $`\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda `$. Therefore, $`Z_1=(\gamma _m\lambda )_\alpha `$ contains $`165=11`$ redundant linear combinations of $`\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda `$, which need to be taken care of at the next level.

If $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ were to terminate at finite level $`L`$, we could count the number of independent first class ghost constraints by the graded sum in equation (6.6), with $`m=5`$. This has an important bearing on the vanishing of the central charge for the superstring, which is mentioned in section 8. In the case of infinite ghosts for ghosts, then the sum would need to be regularized.

The process of finding $`Z_k`$’s is largely a matter of trial and error. Candidate $`Z_k`$’s are put forward which annihilate $`Z_{k1}`$, then their ranks are checked using Maple. We restrict the search to $`Z_k`$’s linear in $`\lambda ^\alpha `$, since higher order powers of $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ tend to have significantly higher $`m_k`$, i.e redundancy, for a given rank.

Finally, we construct the ghost constraint, BRST operator, up to level 2, in the manner of equation (6.10).

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \widehat{Q}_{gc}=& \widehat{C}_m\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }+\widehat{U}^\alpha (\widehat{\lambda }\gamma _m)_\alpha \widehat{B}^m+\widehat{C}^{np}(\widehat{\lambda }\gamma _n\gamma _p)^\alpha \widehat{V}_\alpha +\mathrm{}\hfill \\ & +(\widehat{B}_n\widehat{B}_p\widehat{C}^{np}\frac{1}{2}\widehat{B}_m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{C}^{np}\eta _{np})+\mathrm{},\hfill \end{array}$$
(6.16)
where the expressions in the first line are the boundary terms. The anti-hermitian, ghost constraint ghost number operator is given by

$$\widehat{G}_{gc}=\frac{i}{2}(\widehat{C}_m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{C}_m+2\widehat{U}^\alpha \widehat{V}_\alpha +2\widehat{V}_\alpha \widehat{U}^\alpha +3\widehat{C}^{np}\widehat{B}_{np}3\widehat{B}_{np}\widehat{C}^{np}+\mathrm{}).$$
(6.17)
## 7 Towards the covariant quantization of the $`D=10`$, $`N=1`$ superparticle

We proceed to build a quantum system in the Schrödinger representation, in the manner of section 4, for the superparticle theory with Berkovits BRST operator $`\widehat{Q}=\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{d}_\alpha `$, and with first class ghost constraints described by $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ in equation (6.16).

The fact that $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ is incomplete means that we cannot explicitly calculate the BRST extension with respect to $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, of arbitrary operators which are gauge invariant with respect to $`\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }`$. We tackle this issue in section 7.4.1, by constructing a basis for ghost number zero operators in $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$, whose properties can be deduced without having to build their respective BRST extensions explicitly. The price to be paid is that we have only one representative of each cohomology class of $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$.

Our approach is systematic. We build the defining operators in section 7.1, the gauge-fixed action in 7.2, the physical states in 7.3 and the physical operators in 7.4.

In the latter two sections, we begin with the ghost constraint cohomology $`H(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ in subsections 7.3.1 and 7.4.1, before the physical cohomology $`H(\widehat{Q}|H(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$ in 7.3.2 and 7.4.2, and we compare with the Brink-Schwarz model in 7.3.3 and 7.4.3.

We also construct the super-Poincaré covariant, inner product in section 7.3.2 and draw an analogy with the Witten, particle wavefunction for Chern-Simons theory in 7.3.4.

We further discover in subsection 7.4.2 that $`\widehat{Q}`$ indirectly implies what we name as ‘effective constraints’. The operator cohomology $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$ modulo these ‘effective constraints’ seems to correspond with the space of light-cone gauge operators of the Brink-Schwarz model.

There are some useful, relevant results contained in appendix B concerning BRST quantization in the Schrödinger representation.

### 7.1 The defining operators $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$, $`\widehat{Q}`$ and $`\widehat{G}`$

As already observed,

$$\widehat{Q}^2=[i\widehat{B}^m\widehat{P}_m,\widehat{Q}_{gc}]0,$$
(7.1)
and we have the first terms of the anti-hermitian $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$ in equation (6.17). However, the ghost number operator $`i\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha `$ is gauge invariant

$$[i\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha ,\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }]0,$$
(7.2)
but requires a BRST extension in order to make it $`Q_{gc}`$-closed. Working up to reducibility level 2 again, we find

$`\widehat{G}^{}=i(\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha 2\widehat{C}_m\widehat{B}^m3\widehat{U}^\alpha \widehat{V}_\alpha 4\widehat{C}^{np}\widehat{B}_{np}\mathrm{}),`$ $`[\widehat{G}^{},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0.`$ (7.3)
Similarly, the anti-hermitian ghost number is given by

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \widehat{G}=& \frac{i}{2}[\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha +\widehat{w}_\alpha \widehat{\lambda }^\alpha 2(\widehat{C}_m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{C}_m)3(\widehat{U}^\alpha \widehat{V}_\alpha +\widehat{V}_\alpha \widehat{U}^\alpha )\hfill \\ & 4(\widehat{C}^{np}\widehat{B}_{np}\widehat{B}_{np}\widehat{C}^{np})\mathrm{}].\hfill \end{array}$$
(7.4)
Notice also

$$\widehat{G}=\frac{i}{2}[\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha +\widehat{w}_\alpha \widehat{\lambda }^\alpha (\widehat{C}_m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{B}^m\widehat{C}_m)(\widehat{U}^\alpha \widehat{V}_\alpha +\widehat{V}_\alpha \widehat{U}^\alpha )\mathrm{}]\widehat{G}_{gc}.$$
(7.5)
Careful calculation reveals that the above relation holds for all levels, at least if all $`Z_k`$ are linear in $`\lambda ^\alpha `$.

We now have $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, $`\widehat{G}_{gc}`$, $`\widehat{Q}`$ and $`\widehat{G}`$, which can be confirmed to obey equations (4.1) to (4.5) as required.

### 7.2 The gauge-fixed, BRST invariant, superparticle action

Given the action in equation (3.1), it remains to gauge-fix the pure spinor gauge symmetry in order to obtain the full BRST action. If one chooses the gauge $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_m=0`$, the full action is given by

$$\begin{array}{c}\hfill S=d\tau (\dot{X}^mP_m+\dot{\theta }^\alpha p_\alpha \frac{1}{2}P_mP^m+\dot{\lambda }^\alpha w_\alpha +\\ \hfill \dot{C}_mB^m+\dot{U}^\alpha V_\alpha +\dot{C}^{np}B_{np}+\mathrm{}).\end{array}$$
(7.6)
It is simplest to think of the gauge-fixing procedure from the Hamiltonian point of view, where this corresponds simply to the choice of zero gauge-fixing fermion and hence zero ghost Hamiltonian. The intermediate ‘first class’ Hamiltonian, by which one means first class with respect to the ghost constraints, is given by $`H=1/2P_mP^m`$, which is already BRST invariant with respect to both $`Q_{gc}`$ and $`Q`$.

### 7.3 The physical states

#### 7.3.1 The pure spinor, state cohomology $`H_{st}^{\pm k}(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$

A physical state obeys equations (4.9) and (4.10), belonging to $`H_{st}(\widehat{Q}|H_{st}(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$. A preliminary step is to obtain wavefunctions in the usual Schrödinger representation, belonging to the state cohomology $`H_{st}^{\pm k}(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$. The ghost constraint ghost numbers $`\pm k`$, which are undetermined since $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ hasn’t yet been completed, refer to the cohomologies at which the pure spinor constraints are imposed as Dirac constraints.

We specify states $`\varphi _{C=0,U=0}`$ and $`\varphi _{B=0,V=0}`$, which are defined up to a normalization factor by $`\widehat{C}^m\varphi _{C=0,U=0}=\widehat{U}^\alpha \varphi _{C=0,U=0}=\mathrm{}=0`$ for all $`\widehat{C}`$’s and $`\widehat{U}`$’s and similarly for $`\varphi _{B=0,V=0}`$, where

$`\widehat{G}_{gc}\varphi _{C=0,U=0}=k\varphi _{C=0,U=0},`$ $`\widehat{G}_{gc}\varphi _{B=0,V=0}=k\varphi _{B=0,V=0}.`$ (7.7)
The wavefunctions are normalized as

$`\varphi _{C=0,U=0}=({\displaystyle \underset{m}{}}C_m)\delta ^{(16)}(U)\mathrm{},`$ $`\varphi _{B=0,V=0}=1,`$ (7.8)
so that $`(\varphi _{B=0,V=0},\varphi _{C=0,U=0})=1`$.

A wavefunction $`\psi _{}(\lambda )\varphi _{B=0,V=0}`$ in $`H_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ obeys,

$`\widehat{Q}_{gc}\psi _{}(\lambda )\varphi _{B=0,V=0}=0`$ $``$ $`\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }\psi _{}(\lambda )=0`$ (7.9)
and there are no $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-exact states at this ghost constraint ghost number. On the other hand, a wavefunction $`\psi _+(\lambda )\varphi _{C=0,U=0}`$, in the isomorphic state cohomology $`H_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ is $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed for any function $`\psi _+(\lambda )`$, but we can vary the wavefunction by arbitrary $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-exact amounts

$`\delta \psi _+(\lambda )\varphi _{C=0,U=0}`$ $`=`$ $`i\widehat{Q}_{gc}f_m(\lambda )\widehat{B}^m\varphi _{C=0,U=0}`$ (7.10)
$`\delta \psi _+(\lambda )`$ $`=`$ $`f_m(\lambda )\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda ,`$ (7.11)
for arbitrary wavefunction $`f_m(\lambda )`$. As usual, the two cohomologies are isomorphic

$$H_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc})H_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc}).$$
(7.12)
Note, the fact that there are ghosts for ghosts doesn’t affect the state cohomology. It only becomes important in the operator cohomology, where they are there to cancel the 5 excess degrees of freedom hidden in the 10 ghosts $`C_m`$.

See appendix B for a brief discussion of the BRST concepts which have arisen in this subsection.

#### 7.3.2 The physical state cohomologies $`H_{st}^{\pm (g+1)}(\widehat{Q}|H_{st}^{\pm k}(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$

In the previous subsection, we have not yet worried about requiring $`\widehat{Q}\psi 0`$ or constraining the generic wavefunctions $`\psi _\pm (\lambda )`$ to a particular ghost number. We define the ghost part of generic physical wavefunctions as

$`\varphi _g=\varphi _{w=0,C=0,U=0},`$ $`\varphi _g=\varphi _{\lambda =0,B=0,V=0}`$ (7.13)
where,

$`\varphi _gH_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc}),`$ $`\varphi _gH_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc}),`$ (7.14)
$`\widehat{G}\varphi _{\pm g}=\pm g\varphi _{\pm g},`$ $`g={\displaystyle \frac{11}{2}}k,`$ (7.15)
where the expression for $`g`$ in terms of $`k`$ is deduced from (7.5) and (6.6). The wavefunctions are normalized as in equation (7.8), thus $`(\varphi _g,\varphi _g)=1`$. There are two ingredients to each of the states $`\varphi _g`$ and $`\varphi _g`$. In $`\varphi _g`$ for example, there is firstly a delta-function, which fixes 5 components of $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ in terms of the other 11, so that equation (7.9) is obeyed. Secondly, there is a delta function to set the remaining 11 components of $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ to zero, in order to provide the standard ghost number $`g`$ state. The combined wavefunction $`\varphi _{\lambda =0}`$ is straightforward, however it seems difficult to split it into the two aforementioned parts. The generic ghost number $`(g+1)`$ wavefunction is given by

$$\psi _{g+1}=\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha A_\alpha (X,\theta )\varphi _g,$$
(7.16)
which is simply our version of the Berkovits ghost number one wavefunction. The conditions of BRST invariance (4.9) imply, in a similar manner to Berkovits in section 2, that $`A_\alpha (X,\theta )`$ obeys the super-Maxwell equations of motion

$$\gamma _{mnpqr}^{\alpha \beta }D_\alpha A_\beta =0,$$
(7.17)
since $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{\lambda }^\beta D_\alpha A_\beta (X,\theta )\varphi _g0`$, and $`\gamma _m^{\alpha \beta }\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }D_\alpha A_\beta \varphi _g`$ is $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-exact. Also, $`\psi _{g+1}`$ is $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed for arbitrary $`A_\alpha (X,\theta )`$.

The BRST transformation of the wavefunction $`\psi _{g+1}`$ is

$$\delta \psi _{g+1}=\widehat{Q}\mathrm{\Lambda }(X,\theta )\varphi _g,$$
(7.18)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(X,\theta )\varphi _g`$ is $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed for arbitrary $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(X,\theta )`$, which implies the usual super-Maxwell gauge transformation

$$\delta A_\alpha (X,\theta )=D_\alpha \mathrm{\Lambda }(X,\theta ).$$
(7.19)
Our wavefunction $`\psi _{g+1}`$ couples in the inner product to certain states at opposite ghost numbers, as in equation (B.1), given by

$$\psi _{(g1)}=\widehat{w}_\alpha \stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha (X,\theta )\varphi _g,$$
(7.20)
The conditions of BRST invariance equation (4.9) imply the equation of motion

$$D_\alpha \stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha (X,\theta )=0.$$
(7.21)
The BRST transformation of the wavefunction $`\psi _{(g1)}`$ is

$`\delta \psi _{(g1)}=\widehat{Q}B^{\alpha \beta }(X,\theta )\widehat{w}_\alpha \widehat{w}_\beta \varphi _g`$ for $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}B^{\alpha \beta }(X,\theta )\widehat{w}_\alpha \widehat{w}_\beta \varphi _g=0,`$ (7.22)
which implies the following gauge transformation

$`\delta \stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha (X,\theta )=D_\beta B^{\alpha \beta }(X,\theta )`$ $`\text{for }\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^mB^{\alpha \beta }=0.`$ (7.23)
We expect the two cohomologies to be isomorphic

$$H_{st}^{(g+1)}(\widehat{Q}|H_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))H_{st}^{(g1)}(\widehat{Q}|H_{st}^k(\widehat{Q}_{gc})),$$
(7.24)
and we relate them in section 7.3.3 through the Schrödinger inner product, which we now define.

Since $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ and $`w_\alpha `$ are complex, we define

$`\overline{\lambda }^\alpha =(\lambda ^\alpha )^{},`$ $`\overline{w}_\alpha =(w_\alpha )^{},`$ (7.25)
thus,

$`(\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha )^{}=\widehat{\overline{\lambda }}^\alpha ,`$ $`(\widehat{w}_\alpha )^{}=\widehat{\overline{w}}_\alpha .`$ (7.26)
Given a state $`\psi `$, we define $`\overline{\psi }=\psi ^{}`$. Thus, in particular

$`\overline{\psi }_{g+1}=\widehat{\overline{\lambda }}^\alpha A_\alpha (X,\theta )\varphi _g,`$ $`\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}=\widehat{\overline{w}}_\alpha \stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha (X,\theta )\varphi _g,`$ (7.27)
where we choose the constant phase factors present in $`\psi _{g+1}`$ and $`\psi _{(g1)}`$ such that $`A_\alpha (X,\theta )\varphi _g`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha (X,\theta )\varphi _g`$ are both real. We find that by replacing $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ and $`\widehat{Q}`$ with $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}^{}`$ and $`\widehat{Q}^{}`$ respectively, the condition that $`\overline{\psi }_{g+1}`$ and $`\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}`$ be BRST closed

$`\widehat{Q}_{gc}^{}\overline{\psi }_{g+1}=0,`$ $`\widehat{Q}^{}\overline{\psi }_{g+1}0,`$ (7.28)
$`\widehat{Q}_{gc}^{}\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}=0,`$ $`\widehat{Q}^{}\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}0,`$ (7.29)
implies exactly the same equations of motion for $`A_\alpha `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$ as before. Also, the BRST transformations of $`\overline{\psi }_{g+1}`$ and $`\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}`$ imply exactly the same gauge transformations of $`A_\alpha `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$.

In the inner product, we choose the convention of initially placing $`\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}`$ on the left hand side, though we could just have easily chosen $`\overline{\psi }_{g+1}`$. Crucially, a generic BRST-exact operator, as in equation (4.8), obeys

$`(\overline{\psi }_{(g1)},\{[\widehat{U},\widehat{Q}]+[\widehat{U}_{gc},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]\}\psi _{g+1})=0`$ $`\text{for }[\widehat{U},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0,`$ (7.30)
using equations (4.9), (7.29) and the Jacobi identity. So we have seen that, by replacing $`\psi `$ with $`\overline{\psi }`$ on the left of the inner product, the fact that $`\widehat{Q}`$ and $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ aren’t hermitian isn’t problematic.

Let us calculate a general inner product,

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill (\overline{\psi }_{(g1)},\psi _{g+1})& =[d^{10}Xd^{16}\theta d^{16}\lambda d^{16}\overline{\lambda }d^{10}Cd^{16}U\mathrm{}](\overline{\psi }_{(g1)})^{}\psi _{g+1}\hfill \\ & =d^{10}Xd^{16}\theta \stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha (X,\theta )A_\alpha (X,\theta ).\hfill \end{array}$$
(7.31)
This tells us that on expanding $`A_\alpha (X,\theta )`$ in powers of $`\theta ^\alpha `$, the coefficient of the $`(\theta )^i`$ term in $`A_\alpha (X,\theta )`$ couples to the coefficient of the $`\theta ^{(16i)}`$ term in $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha (X,\theta )`$. Therefore just as we expand $`A_\alpha `$ in increasing powers of $`\theta ^\alpha `$ starting at $`1`$ as in equation (E.14), so it makes sense to expand $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$ in decreasing powers of $`\theta ^\alpha `$ starting with $`\theta ^1\theta ^2\mathrm{}\theta ^{16}`$. For this purpose, we invent a useful notation,

$$\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\alpha \stackrel{~}{\theta }_\beta \mathrm{}=\frac{}{\theta ^\alpha }\frac{}{\theta ^\beta }\mathrm{}(\theta ^1\theta ^2\mathrm{}\theta ^{16})$$
(7.32)
where $`\widehat{\theta }^\alpha `$ denotes that $`\theta ^\alpha `$ has been excluded from the product and the sign depends on $`\alpha ,\beta `$ etc.. Also,

$$\theta ^\rho \stackrel{~}{\theta }_\alpha \stackrel{~}{\theta }_\beta \mathrm{}=\frac{}{\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\rho }\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\alpha \stackrel{~}{\theta }_\beta \mathrm{},$$
(7.33)
so that the covariant derivative can be written

$$D_\alpha \stackrel{~}{\theta }_\alpha i\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m_m\frac{}{\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\beta },$$
(7.34)
which is useful for making component calculations with $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$. We observe that the gauge transformation of $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$ does a similar job to the equation of motion for $`A_\alpha `$ and vice versa. The superfield $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$ has two physical components, $`\stackrel{~}{a}^m(X)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha (X)`$. We can choose a special gauge for $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$ analogous to that for $`A_\alpha `$ in equation (E.14), such that

$$\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha =i\stackrel{~}{a}^m(X)\gamma _m^{\alpha \beta }\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\beta \stackrel{~}{\chi }_\gamma (X)\gamma _m^{\alpha \beta }\gamma ^{m\gamma \delta }\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\beta \stackrel{~}{\theta }_\delta +\mathrm{},$$
(7.35)
and all remaining components depend only on $`\stackrel{~}{a}^m`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha `$. The equation of motion (7.21) implies

$$_m\stackrel{~}{a}^m(X)=0,$$
(7.36)
and the gauge transformation (7.23) implies

$`\delta \stackrel{~}{a}^m=_n(^ns^m^ms^n),`$ $`\delta \stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha =\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m_m\xi ^\beta ,`$ (7.37)
for arbitrary parameters $`s^n(X)`$ and $`\xi ^\beta (X)`$. Notice that the inner product, in the last line of equation (7.31), is gauge invariant with respect to variations in $`A_\alpha `$ due to the equations of motion of $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$, and vice versa.

A derivation of the expression for (7.31) in terms of component fields has yet to be completed, due to the length of the calculation. Nevertheless, we deduce that up to normalization factors

$$(\overline{\psi }_{(g1)},\psi _{g+1})=d^{10}X(\stackrel{~}{a}^m(X)a_m(X)+\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha (X)\chi ^\alpha (X)),$$
(7.38)
for a number of reasons. Firstly, it must be gauge invariant and thus depend only on physical components. Secondly, since $`A_\alpha `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$ are linear in their physical components, the inner product must also be linear in them. Thirdly, since $`a_m`$ appears only at odd powers of $`\theta ^\alpha `$, and $`\chi ^\alpha `$ only at even powers of $`\theta ^\alpha `$ in $`A_\alpha `$, and since $`\stackrel{~}{a}^m`$ appears only at odd powers of $`\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\alpha `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha `$ only at even powers of $`\stackrel{~}{\theta }_\alpha `$ in $`\stackrel{~}{A}^\alpha `$, so the inner product must be a sum of just two terms, one dependent only on $`a_m`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{a}^m`$, the other only on $`\chi ^\alpha `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha `$. The above expression is the only gauge invariant possibility which fits the above criteria.

In order to write down a basis for physical states $`\psi _{g+1}`$, we create states with definite quantum numbers, which are defined up to a BRST-exact wavefunction

$`\psi _{g+1}\psi _{g+1}(k_m,a_m,\chi ^\alpha ),`$ (7.39)
where $`k_m`$, $`a_m`$ and $`\chi ^\alpha `$ are all constant, real numbers, such that

$`k^2=0,`$ $`k^ma_m=0,`$ $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^mk_m\chi ^\beta =0.`$ (7.40)
Similarly,

$`\psi _{(g1)}\psi _{(g1)}(k_m,\stackrel{~}{a}^m,\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha ),`$ (7.41)
where $`k_m`$, $`\stackrel{~}{a}^m`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha `$ are all constant, real numbers, such that

$`k^2=0,`$ $`k_m\stackrel{~}{a}^m=0.`$ (7.42)
#### 7.3.3 Comparison with the light-cone gauge, BS superparticle

We relate a state $`\psi _{g+1}(k_m,a_m,\chi ^\alpha )`$ to its light cone gauge, BS equivalent, by gauge-fixing $`a^+=0`$, as in appendix E.2.1. This will be important for comparing operators of the BS superparticle in the light-cone gauge with operators in our superparticle, by observing how they act on equivalent states. We write a generic wavefunction $`\psi _{g+1}`$ with light-cone gauge values of $`k_m`$, $`a_m`$ and $`\chi ^\alpha `$

$$\psi _{g+1}\psi _{g+1}^{LC}(k_m,a_m,\chi ^\alpha )$$
(7.43)
where $`a^{}(a^i)=(k^+)^1k^ia^i`$, and where we are using the standard light-cone gauge notation as in appendix E. Also, $`\chi ^b`$ is determined as a function of $`\chi ^{\dot{b}}`$ as in equation (E.10), since $`\chi ^\alpha `$ obeys the Dirac equation. This maps directly to the semi-light-cone gauge Brink-Schwarz wavefunction $`\psi _{BS}`$, with the usual notation as described in appendix E.1.

$$\psi _{BS}=\mathrm{exp}(ik_mX^m)(a^i|i>+i2^{\frac{1}{4}}(P^+)^{\frac{1}{2}}\chi ^{\dot{b}}|\dot{b}>).$$
(7.44)
Likewise,

$$\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}^{LC}(k_m,\stackrel{~}{a}^m,\stackrel{~}{\chi }_\alpha ),$$
(7.45)
where we fix the gauge symmetry of equation (7.37) with conditions $`\stackrel{~}{a}^+=0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }^b=0`$.

We compare our Schrödinger inner product to that of the semi-light cone gauge, BS superparticle. From equation (7.38), we learn

$$(\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}^{LC},\psi _{g+1}^{LC})=d^{10}X(\stackrel{~}{a}^ia^i+\stackrel{~}{\chi }^{\dot{b}}\chi ^{\dot{b}}),$$
(7.46)
which agrees with the semi-light-cone gauge inner product in equation (E.4) up to a normalization factor. We therefore make the map between the two, isomorphic, state cohomologies

$$\psi _{g+1}^{LC}(k_m,(0,a^{}(a^i),a^i),(\chi ^b(\chi ^{\dot{b}}),\chi ^{\dot{b}})\overline{\psi }_{(g1)}^{LC}(k_m,(0,\stackrel{~}{a}^{}(\stackrel{~}{a}^i),\stackrel{~}{a}^i),(0,\stackrel{~}{\chi }^{\dot{b}})),$$
(7.47)
in a similar manner to equation (B.4).

#### 7.3.4 An analogy with abelian Chern-Simons theory

The manner in which the physical wavefunction obtained from the Berkovits BRST operator describes super Yang-Mills is unusual. In particular, the wavefunction $`\lambda ^\alpha A_\alpha `$ appears at a ghost number one higher than that required to impose the constraints in $`\widehat{Q}`$ as Dirac constraints. It was noticed however , that there is a more simple precedent. Witten  shows how Chern-Simons theory arises in a similar way from a string theory, which is easily modified to a particle theory. An analogy can be drawn between the Witten particle theory and the Berkovits superparticle theory. Our analogy differs significantly to that of Berkovits’ .

Abelian, Chern-Simons theory can be described by the world-line, Witten action

$$S=𝑑\tau (\dot{X}^mP_ml^mP_m),$$
(7.48)
where $`m=0,1,2`$, which is the Hamiltonian form of the theory described by a zero Lagrangian. First class constraints $`P_m`$ imply the BRST operator

$$Q=ic^m_m,$$
(7.49)
where $`c^m,b_m`$ are conjugate pairs of fermionic ghosts. The most general wavefunction can be expressed

$$\psi _W=C(X)+c^mA_m(X)+\frac{i}{2}c^mc^n\epsilon _{mnp}A^p(X)+\frac{i}{6}c^mc^nc^p\epsilon _{mnp}C^{}(X),$$
(7.50)
which terminates because $`c^m`$ is fermionic. The condition $`Q\psi =0`$, together with the BRST transformation $`\delta \psi =Q\mathrm{\Omega }(c,X)`$ for the particle model, imply the equations of motion and gauge transformations for the Chern-Simons fields

$`_{[m}A_{n]}=0,`$ $`\delta A_m=_m\mathrm{\Lambda },`$ (7.51)
$`_pA^p=0,`$ $`\delta A^p=\epsilon ^{pmn}_mw_n,`$ (7.52)
$`_mC=0,`$ $`\delta C^{}=_pu^p.`$ (7.53)
The Chern-Simons action is given by

$$d^3X(\frac{1}{2}\epsilon ^{mnp}A_m_nA_p+iA^p_pC),$$
(7.54)
where $`A^p`$ is the antifield to $`A_p`$ and $`C`$ and $`C^{}`$ are the ghost and anti-ghost, and can be written remarkably compactly as

$$S=\frac{1}{2}(\psi ,Q\psi ),$$
(7.55)
where the inner product measure is the usual $`d^3Xd^3c`$.

To make the analogy clear, we rewrite the Witten wavefunction for the corresponding particle theory in the form

$$\psi _W=C(X)\varphi _{b=0}+A_m(X)\widehat{c}^m\varphi _{b=0}+iA^m(X)\widehat{b}_m\varphi _{c=0}+iC^{}(X)\varphi _{c=0},$$
(7.56)
where $`\widehat{G}\varphi _{b=0}=3/2\varphi _{b=0}`$ and $`\widehat{G}\varphi _{c=0}=3/2\varphi _{c=0}`$. The point to notice is that fields couple to anti-fields in the Schrödinger inner product $`(\psi _W,\psi _W)`$, since $`(\varphi _{b=0},\varphi _{c=0})=1`$ and $`(\widehat{c}^m\varphi _{b=0},\widehat{b}_n\varphi _{c=0})=i\delta _n^m`$, and all other inner products are zero. In other words, states at opposite ghost number, as described by anti-hermitian ghost number operator $`\widehat{G}`$, couple to each other, as in equation (B.1). Furthermore, the state cohomology $`H_{st}^g(\widehat{Q})`$ is dual to $`H_{st}^g(\widehat{Q})`$, and as part of their special relation, the equation stating that $`\psi _gH_{st}^g(\widehat{Q})`$ is BRST-closed is connected in a specific way to the equation that states the BRST transformation for $`\psi _gH_{st}^g(\widehat{Q})`$, and vice versa. This is the reason why fields and anti-fields appear at opposite ghost number, since the equations of motion of a field are related in just the right way to the gauge invariances of the corresponding antifield, and vice versa.

Our wavefunction for the superparticle is thus

$$\psi =C(X,\theta )\varphi _g+A_\alpha (X,\theta )\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \varphi _g+A^\alpha (X,\theta )\widehat{w}_\alpha \varphi _g+C^{}(X,\theta )\varphi _g,$$
(7.57)
where $`A^\alpha (X,\theta )`$ is the super-antifield to $`A_\alpha (X,\theta )`$ and $`C^{}(X,\theta )`$ the super-antighost to super-ghost $`C(X,\theta )`$ and where we recall that $`\varphi _g=\varphi _{w=0,\mathrm{}}`$ and $`\varphi _g=\varphi _{\lambda =0,\mathrm{}}`$.

We might expect to be able to write a BV, superspace action for super Maxwell in an analogous way to the Chern-Simons action in equation (7.55), however the action

$$S=(\overline{\psi },\widehat{Q}\psi )=d^{10}Xd^{16}\theta A^\alpha (X,\theta )D_\alpha C(X,\theta ),$$
(7.58)
unfortunately only provides the BV super-ghost, super-anti-field part. This is because we need a ghost number $`(g+2)`$ term in $`\psi `$ in order to couple to the term $`\widehat{Q}A_\alpha (X,\theta )\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \varphi _g`$. Of course this should come as no surprise, since there is no known action principle for the superspace formulation of $`D=10`$ super Yang-Mills. The superfield ghosts and anti-field are only realized on-shell.

A different analogy to Chern-Simons theory is also drawn by Berkovits. The main difference is that he chooses a particular non-linear measure, similar to that used in his expression for massless tree-level amplitudes, instead of the natural measure used here. The principle is still the same, that $`C`$ must couple to $`C^{}`$, and $`A`$ to $`A^{}`$ under the inner product. However, due to the form of the measure, $`A^{}`$ and $`C^{}`$ appear at ghost numbers $`g+2`$ and $`g+3`$ respectively, though with extra indices i.e $`A^{\alpha \beta }`$ and $`C^{\alpha \beta \gamma }`$. It is claimed however that their on-shell physical components still correspond with the BV anti-fields of super-Maxwell.

### 7.4 The physical operators

#### 7.4.1 The pure spinor, operator cohomology $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$

Due to the fact that no completion of $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ has been found yet, we cannot calculate all operators belonging to $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ explicitly. However, if we further restrict ourselves to operators which have zero ghost numbers, as do physical operators, we can specify a basis for all cohomology classes. Furthermore we can deduce the algebra of the basis elements, which is closed, and how the basis elements act on physical states.

The operators $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha `$ and $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \gamma _{}^{mn}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}{}_{}{}^{\beta }\widehat{w}_\beta /2`$ form a basis for ghost number zero operators, which are gauge invariant with respect to the first class, ghost constraints. A general such gauge invariant operator is of the form

$$\widehat{F}=:\widehat{F}_0(\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha ,\frac{1}{2}\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^{mn}\widehat{w}):+:\widehat{F}_{1m}(\widehat{\lambda },\widehat{w})\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }:,$$
(7.59)
for some convenient normal ordering, where $`F_{1m}`$ has ghost number $`2`$, but is otherwise arbitrary and where the second term vanishes on the constraint surface.

The BRST extensions of the basis elements are $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha +\widehat{E}`$ and $`\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^{mn}\widehat{w}/2+\widehat{L}^{mn}`$, where

$`\widehat{E}=2\widehat{B}^m\widehat{C}_m3\widehat{U}^\alpha \widehat{V}_\alpha +4\widehat{B}_{np}\widehat{C}^{np}\mathrm{},`$ (7.60)
$`\widehat{L}^{mn}=\widehat{C}^m\widehat{B}^n\widehat{C}^n\widehat{B}^m+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\widehat{U}^\alpha (\gamma ^{mn})_{\alpha }^{}{}_{}{}^{\beta }\widehat{V}_\beta +\mathrm{}.`$ (7.61)
We notice that $`\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^{mn}\widehat{w}/2`$ generates Lorentz transformations for $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha `$ and $`\widehat{w}_\alpha `$, and hence the equation $`[\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^{mn}\widehat{w}/2+\widehat{L}^{mn},\widehat{Q}_{gc}]=0`$ implies that $`\widehat{L}^{mn}`$ is the Lorentz generator for the ghost constraint ghosts $`\widehat{C}`$, $`\widehat{B}`$, …, if we assume $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ to be a Lorentz scalar. Therefore, the algebra of $`\widehat{E}`$ and $`\widehat{L}^{mn}`$ is given by

$`[\widehat{E},\widehat{L}^{mn}]=0`$ $`[\widehat{L}^{mn},\widehat{L}^{pq}]=i(\eta ^{np}\widehat{L}^{mq}\eta ^{mp}\widehat{L}^{nq}+\eta ^{mq}\widehat{L}^{np}\eta ^{nq}\widehat{L}^{mp}).`$ (7.62)
The scheme for constructing the BRST extension of any gauge invariant operator, is firstly to split it into the form of equation (7.59) and discard the piece proportional to $`\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }`$, whose BRST extension is always $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-exact. We then replace $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha `$ and $`\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \gamma _{}^{mn}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}{}_{}{}^{\beta }\widehat{w}_\beta /2`$ in $`\widehat{F}_0`$ with their BRST extensions $`(\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha +\widehat{E})`$ and $`(\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \gamma _{}^{mn}{}_{\alpha }{}^{}{}_{}{}^{\beta }\widehat{w}_\beta /2+\widehat{L}^{mn})`$.

We deduce that $`\widehat{L}^{mn}`$ annihilates physical states due to being antisymmetric in ghost constraint ghosts, and $`\widehat{E}\varphi _g=0`$, but $`\widehat{E}\varphi _g=i(5+k)\varphi _g`$, where recall that $`k`$ is an unknown constant. If necessary, the unknown constant $`i(5+k)`$ can be subtracted from $`\widehat{E}`$ to begin with, or when calculating expectation values, we may place the negative ghost number wavefunction on the left hand side of the inner product.

By following the above scheme, we can perform matrix element calculations and compute quantum brackets of physical operators etc.. The price to be paid is that, each cohomology class of $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ has only one representative using our basis.

#### 7.4.2 The physical operator cohomology $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$ modulo ‘effective constraints’

A basis for operators belonging to $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$, linear in phase-space variables, is given by

$$\widehat{P}_m,\widehat{q}_\alpha ,\widehat{K}^{mn},\widehat{J},$$
(7.63)
where

$$\widehat{q}_\alpha =\widehat{p}_\alpha +i\widehat{P}_m(\gamma ^m\widehat{\theta })_\alpha $$
(7.64)
$$\widehat{K}^{mn}=\widehat{X}^m\widehat{P}^n\widehat{X}^n\widehat{P}^m+\frac{1}{2}\widehat{\theta }^\alpha (\gamma ^{mn})_{\alpha }^{}{}_{}{}^{\beta }\widehat{p}_\beta +\frac{1}{2}\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha (\gamma ^{mn})_{\alpha }^{}{}_{}{}^{\beta }\widehat{w}_\beta +\widehat{L}^{mn},$$
(7.65)
$$\widehat{J}=2\widehat{X}^m\widehat{P}_m+\widehat{\theta }^\alpha \widehat{p}_\alpha +\widehat{\lambda }^\alpha \widehat{w}_\alpha +\widehat{E}.$$
(7.66)
Any $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-closed, ghost number -1 operator $`\widehat{A}H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc})`$ is also $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-exact, because its gauge invariant piece $`\widehat{A}_0(\widehat{\lambda },\widehat{w})`$ must be proportional to $`\widehat{\lambda }\gamma ^m\widehat{\lambda }`$. Thus, $`[\widehat{A},\widehat{Q}]0`$, meaning that there are no $`\widehat{Q}`$-exact operators, which aren’t trivial, i.e $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$-exact.

The operator cohomology $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$ cannot correspond with the light-cone gauge space of operators for the BS superparticle for two reasons. There is no mass-shell constraint $`\widehat{P}^2=0`$, which would render $`\widehat{P}^2`$ BRST exact, and there are 8 too many independent fermionic operators $`\widehat{q}_\alpha `$, compared to the 8 $`\widehat{\theta }^a`$’s of the light-cone gauge BS superparticle. However, something interesting happens, which saves us. We find that the matrix element of $`\widehat{P}^2`$ between arbitrary physical states $`(\overline{\psi }_{(g1)},\widehat{P}^2\psi _{g+1})`$, which we denote as $`<\widehat{P}^2>`$, obeys,

$$<\widehat{P}^2>=i(\overline{\psi }_{(g1)},\widehat{Q}^mA_m(X,\theta )\varphi _g)=0,$$
(7.67)
where we have used the super-Maxwell field equation $`^mF_{m\alpha }=0`$, where $`F_{m\alpha }`$ is the spin $`3/2`$ super field-strength and $`A_m`$ the space-time super gauge connection, as in appendix E.2.2. This perhaps isn’t so surprising, since the striking feature of super-Maxwell in ten dimensions is that the constraint equations alone place the theory on-shell. Also,

$$<\widehat{P}_m\gamma ^{m\alpha \beta }\widehat{q}_\beta >=4(\overline{\psi }_{(g1)},\widehat{Q}W^\alpha \varphi _g)=0$$
(7.68)
where we use the abelian form of the constraint equation (E.11), the field equation $`^mF_{m\alpha }=0`$ and the identity $`D_\beta W^\alpha =F_{mn}(\gamma ^{mn})_{}^{\alpha }{}_{\beta }{}^{}W^\beta /2`$, where $`W^\beta =\gamma ^{m\alpha \beta }F_{m\alpha }`$ is the photino superfield strength. Since $`\widehat{q}_\alpha `$ obeys the Dirac equation in (7.68), it effectively has the required 8 independent degrees of freedom.

We describe $`\widehat{P}^2=0`$ and $`\widehat{P}_m\gamma ^{m\alpha \beta }\widehat{q}_\beta =0`$ as ‘effective constraints’, since they arise only indirectly from the Berkovits BRST operator $`\widehat{Q}`$. All other ‘effective constraints’ are formed from these two expressions.

Given a generic effective constraint $`\widehat{G}_{\text{eff}}`$, we deduce that

$`<\widehat{G}_{\text{eff}}\widehat{A}>=<\widehat{A}\widehat{G}_{\text{eff}}>=0`$ $`\text{iff }\widehat{A}H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc})).`$ (7.69)
An interesting inference is that

$`[\widehat{A},\widehat{P}^2]0,`$ $`[\widehat{A},\widehat{P}_m\gamma ^{m\alpha \beta }\widehat{q}_\beta ]0,`$ (7.70)
given $`\widehat{A}H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$, where the $``$ refers to the effective constraint surface. We observe that the effective constraint surface is the same as the first class part of the BS superparticle constraint surface, which describes Siegel’s superparticle model. We have now completed the superparticle model, with the exception of not having produced an explicit completion of the pure spinor BRST operator $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$, which as argued in section 7.4.1, is not as restrictive as one might expect.

It seems plausible that $`H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}|H_{op}^0(\widehat{Q}_{gc}))`$ modulo the effective constraints, corresponds with the space of light-cone gauge, BS operators. In the next subsection, we explicitly construct the map from the light-cone gauge BS operators to our ‘physical’ operators.

#### 7.4.3 Comparison with the light-cone gauge, BS superparticle

Since we can map between any state $`\psi _{g+1}(k_m,a_m,\chi ^\alpha )`$ in our model and the corresponding state $`\psi _{BS}(k_m,a^i,\chi ^{\dot{a}})`$ in the light-cone gauge, BS superparticle as in section 7.3.3, we can also relate operators in the two models, which can be defined by how they act on the states. We attempt to map the physical operators of the light-cone gauge, BS superparticle to our basis operators in equation (7.63).

Our $`\widehat{P}_m`$’s, combined with effective constraint $`<\widehat{P}^2>=0`$, straightforwardly map to the $`\widehat{P}_m`$’s of the BS model. The fermionic operators $`\widehat{q}_\alpha `$ of our model, in the Schrödinger representation, are simply the supersymmetry generators

$$Q_\alpha \frac{}{\theta ^\alpha }+i\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m\theta ^\beta _m.$$
(7.71)
As a result of the effective constraint (7.68), we can write $`Q^{\dot{a}}`$ in terms of $`Q^a`$,

$$<Q^{\dot{a}}>=<2^{\frac{1}{2}}(\widehat{P}^+)^1\widehat{P}^i\sigma _{\dot{a}a}^iQ^a>,$$
(7.72)
where $`Q_\alpha =(Q^a,Q^{\dot{a}})`$, and $`\sigma _{\dot{a}a}^i`$ are the $`SO(8)`$ gamma matrices defined in appendix C. Therefore, $`Q^{\dot{a}}`$ is redundant.

Let us see how $`Q^a`$ behaves by observing how it acts on a generic state $`\psi _{g+1}`$. We firstly choose a representative physical state from each cohomology class, with light-cone gauge quantum numbers as in section 7.3.3

$`\psi _{g+1}^{LC}=\psi _{g+1}(k_m,(0,a^{}(a^i),a^i),(\chi ^a(\chi ^{\dot{a}}),\chi ^{\dot{a}})),`$ (7.73)
and now calculate

$$Q_\alpha \psi _{g+1}((k_m,a_m,\chi ^\beta ))\psi _{g+1}(k_m,(\gamma _m\chi )_\alpha ,k_ma_n(\gamma ^{mn})_{\alpha }^{}{}_{}{}^{\beta }).$$
(7.74)
We can obtain this either with a calculation of $`Q_\alpha A_\beta `$ in components, or more simply, by reading off the super-Maxwell, supersymmetry transformations of equation (E.8) up to a factor, since $`Q_\alpha `$ are also the super-Maxwell supersymmetry generators. Combining the above two equations, we learn

$$Q^a\psi _{g+1}^{LC}\psi _{g+1}^{LC}(k_m,(0,a_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(a_{}^{i}{}_{}{}^{}),a_{}^{i}{}_{}{}^{}),(\chi _{}^{a}{}_{}{}^{}(\chi _{}^{\dot{a}}{}_{}{}^{}),\chi _{}^{\dot{a}}{}_{}{}^{})),$$
(7.75)
where

$`a_{}^{i}{}_{}{}^{}=\sigma _{a\dot{b}}^i\chi ^{\dot{b}}`$ $`\chi _{}^{\dot{a}}{}_{}{}^{}=(2)^{\frac{1}{2}}k^+a^i\sigma _{a\dot{b}}^i.`$ (7.76)
Therefore, using the map between $`\psi _{g+1}^{LC}`$ and $`\psi _{BS}`$ in section 7.3.3, we make the relation

$`Q^ai2^{\frac{1}{4}}(P^+)^{\frac{1}{2}}S^a,`$ (7.77)
where $`S^a`$ describe the fermionic degrees of freedom for the light-cone gauge, BS superparticle and where we have used equation (E.3).

The mapping between the $`\widehat{X}`$’s of the two models is more involved, so we simply provide the outline of a proof. To begin with we relate our $`\widehat{K}^{mn}`$, defined in equation (7.65), to gauge-invariant $`(\widehat{X}^m\widehat{P}^n\widehat{X}^n\widehat{P}^m)`$ of the semi-light-cone gauge, BS model. The $`(\widehat{X}^m\widehat{P}^n\widehat{X}^n\widehat{P}^m)`$ part of $`\widehat{K}^{mn}`$ operates on $`\psi _{g+1}^{LC}`$ in an identical manner to how it operates on $`\psi _{BS}`$. Unfortunately, however, all the terms in $`\widehat{K}^{mn}`$ are necessary in order that it be BRST closed. When $`\widehat{K}^{mn}`$ operates on a physical state $`\psi _{g+1}(k_m,a_m,\chi ^\alpha )`$, it Lorentz rotates the quantum numbers. We observe that $`(\widehat{X}^m\widehat{P}^n\widehat{X}^n\widehat{P}^m)`$ Lorentz rotates $`k_m`$, while the remaining terms in $`\widehat{K}^{mn}`$ Lorentz rotate $`a_m`$ and $`\chi ^\alpha `$. We can build an operator $`\widehat{S}^{mn}`$ out of $`\widehat{q}_\alpha `$’s, which compensates for the rotation of $`a_m`$ and $`\chi ^\alpha `$, without rotating $`k_m`$. The $`SO(8)`$ part of this term, for example, would be $`\widehat{S}^{ij}\widehat{S}^a\sigma _{ab}^{ij}\widehat{S}^b`$, where $`\widehat{S}^a`$ has been defined in terms of $`Q^a`$ in equation (7.77). Then

$`\widehat{R}^{mn}=\widehat{K}^{mn}+\widehat{S}^{mn}(\widehat{q}_\alpha )`$ (7.78)
is exactly equivalent to $`(\widehat{X}^m\widehat{P}^n\widehat{X}^n\widehat{P}^m)`$ of the semi-light-cone, BS model.

It is fairly straightforward to relate $`\widehat{X}^i`$ and $`\widehat{X}^{}`$ of the light-cone gauge, BS model with $`\widehat{R}^{mn}`$ of our model. We first relate $`\widehat{X}^i`$ and $`\widehat{X}^{}`$ to their gauge-invariant counterparts

light-cone gauge BS $``$ gauge invariant with respect to $`P^2=0`$ (7.79)
$`X^i`$ $``$ $`X^i(P^+)^1P^i(X^+\tau P^+)`$ (7.80)
$`X^{}`$ $``$ $`X^{}(P^+)^1P^{}(X^+\tau P^+),`$ (7.81)
where the expressions on the left and right hand side are equal on the light-cone gauge constraint surface. A convenient basis for these operators is

$$\widehat{P}^i,\widehat{P}^+,(\widehat{X}^i\widehat{P}^+\widehat{X}^+\widehat{P}^i),(\widehat{X}^{}\widehat{P}^+\widehat{X}^+\widehat{P}^{}).$$
(7.82)
Thus, any light-cone gauge, BS operator can be mapped to an operator in our model, formed of the following basis elements

$$\widehat{P}_m,\widehat{q}^a,\widehat{R}^{i+},\widehat{R}^+.$$
(7.83)
To prove the reverse mapping for the $`\widehat{X}`$’s is more difficult, though given equation (7.70), it seems reasonable to conjecture that every operator in our model can be mapped to an operator in the light-cone gauge, BS superparticle.

## 8 Central charge cancellation for the open superstring

In principle, the methods used in quantizing the superparticle here can also be generalized to quantize the free superstring. It is further confirmation of the fundamental nature of the Berkovits BRST operator, combined with pure spinor ghosts, that the first, excited massive, superspace vertex operator  has been explicitly constructed, providing for the first time the superspace form of the first massive multiplet. Furthermore, the same principles can be used to covariantly obtain the rest of the physical spectrum.

There are additional issues with the superstring which don’t apply to the superparticle. In particular, there is a quantum anomaly which is the central charge in the Virasoro algebra. One expects the central charge to disappear in $`D=10`$ as with the RNS superstring.

The BRST charges are now

$`Q={\displaystyle 𝑑z\lambda ^\alpha (z)d_\alpha (z)},`$ $`Q_{gc}={\displaystyle 𝑑z(C_m\lambda \gamma ^m\lambda +\mathrm{})},`$ (8.1)
where we use the same notation as Berkovits, thus simply replacing world-line parameter $`\tau `$ with complex, Euclidean world-sheet parameter $`z`$.

The left-moving part of the superstring action is defined as

$$S=d^2z(\frac{1}{2}X_m\overline{}X^m+\overline{}\theta ^\alpha p_\alpha +\overline{}\lambda ^\alpha w_\alpha +\overline{}C_mB^m+\overline{}U^\alpha V_\alpha +\mathrm{}),$$
(8.2)
which is the open superstring version of equation (7.6). Hence, the energy momentum tensor is given by

$$T_{zz}(z)=\frac{1}{2}X_mX^m+\theta ^\alpha p_\alpha +\lambda ^\alpha w_\alpha +C_mB^m+U^\alpha V_\alpha +\mathrm{}.$$
(8.3)
The central charge contributions from $`X`$, $`(p,\theta )`$ and $`(w,\lambda )`$ are +10 , -32, +32 respectively and from the ghost pairs $`(B,C)`$, $`(V,U)`$, … are -20, +32, … . Each fermionic ghost pair contributes -2 and each bosonic pair +2. From equation (6.6), the graded sum of ghost constraint ghost degrees of freedom, starting from $`i=1`$ instead of $`i=0`$, is $`5`$. Thus, the total contribution to the central charge by the capital letter ghosts is $`2\times (5)=10`$. The total central charge is then

$$c=1032+3210=0,$$
(8.4)
as required, assuming that a termination for $`Q_{gc}`$ can be found. If there are infinite ghosts for ghosts, $`c`$ will be an infinite sum which must be regularized.

## 9 Future research

Either the ghosts for ghosts terms in $`\widehat{Q}_{gc}`$ have to be completed, or some other method used before the ten dimensional pure spinor and its conjugate momentum are covariantly quantized. Only then will we have a complete, covariant BRST system for the Berkovits superparticle.

Despite the above problem, we have seen in section 7.4.1, how it’s still possible to covariantly calculate matrix elements of arbitrary physical operators, between physical states. Therefore it seems logical to continue with the next step and build a model, in the same vein as this paper, for the free Berkovits superstring, in the hope that we can still perform useful calculations.

An outstanding problem is to derive tree-level superstring scattering amplitudes. Although a plausible expression for massless tree amplitudes has been conjectured, and tested , it uses a special integration measure, whose precise origin is unknown. Understanding the origin of the tree-level amplitudes seems a necessary step before we have a realistic chance of obtaining one-loop amplitudes. It is hoped that understanding how to write free superstring matrix elements, in a similar manner to the superparticle in this article, will provide some insight towards this goal. After all, in general we construct interacting string amplitudes using the corresponding free string model.

## Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Nathan Berkovits, Marc Henneaux, and especially Chris Hull and Dan Waldram for useful discussions. I’m also grateful to Rosemary Reader for proof reading the text.

## Appendix A Conventions

Roman letters in the middle of the alphabet $`m,n,p`$ etc. correspond to space-time indices. Greek letters at the start of the alphabet are used as spinor indices. The flat space-time metric $`\eta ^{mn}`$ has signature $`++\mathrm{}+`$. We also choose units such that $`c=1`$ and $`\mathrm{}=1`$.

Throughout, the graded Poisson bracket of functions $`A`$ and $`B`$ is given by

$$[A,B].$$
(A.1)
In the context of operators, which have hats,

$$[\widehat{A},\widehat{B}],$$
(A.2)
is the graded quantum (anti-)commutator of operators $`\widehat{A}`$ and $`\widehat{B}`$. The brackets of generic, bosonic, conjugate pair $`\widehat{X}`$ and $`\widehat{P}`$, and generic, fermionic, conjugate pair $`\widehat{C}`$ and $`\widehat{B}`$ are given by

$`[\widehat{X},\widehat{P}]=i,`$ $`[\widehat{C},\widehat{B}]=i.`$ (A.3)
Also $`\widehat{X}`$, $`\widehat{P}`$ and $`\widehat{C}`$ are hermitian, and $`\widehat{B}`$ is anti-hermitian. In the Schrödinger representation, $`\widehat{X}`$ and $`\widehat{C}`$ are simply given by bosonic variable $`X`$ and fermionic variable $`C`$ respectively. Similarly, their conjugate momenta $`\widehat{P}`$ and $`\widehat{B}`$ are given by $`i/X`$ and $`i/C`$.

## Appendix B BRST quantization in the Schrödinger representation

We state some useful results  regarding BRST quantization in the Schrödinger representation.

The ghost number operator $`\widehat{G}`$ is defined up to a constant, which can be chosen such that it is anti-hermitian $`\widehat{G}=\widehat{G}^{}`$. We then find that the inner product of two states $`\psi _g`$ and $`\psi _g^{}`$ obeys

$`(\psi _g,\psi _g^{})=0,`$ $`\text{for }g+g^{}0,`$ (B.1)
where $`\widehat{G}\psi _g=g\psi _g`$ and $`\widehat{G}\psi _g^{}=g^{}\psi _g`$. So for $`g0`$, the state $`\psi _g`$ has zero norm and couples only to states with ghost number $`g`$. Also, there is a theorem that opposite ghost number, state cohomologies are isomorphic

$$H_{st}^g(\widehat{Q})H_{st}^g(\widehat{Q}),$$
(B.2)
where $`\widehat{Q}`$ is the BRST operator.

In the Schrödinger representation, with no non-minimal sector included, the physical state cohomology appears at ghost numbers $`\pm m/2`$ for a standard gauge theory with $`m`$ irreducible, first class constraints.

We therefore need to compute state cohomologies at both ghost numbers in order to make matrix element calculations. They then take the form $`(\chi _{gc},\widehat{A}\psi _g)`$, where $`\psi _gH^g(\widehat{Q})`$ and $`\chi _{gc}H^g(\widehat{Q})`$ and where $`\widehat{A}`$ is a ghost number zero operator. For practical calculations, states in each cohomology will be defined by a different, but equivalent set of quantum numbers, which we therefore need to relate. We want an explicit map between cohomology classes at the two ghost numbers.

We look for a basis $`\{\psi _g^A\}`$ for states in $`H_{st}^g(\widehat{Q})`$, and similarly a basis $`\{\psi _g^B\}`$ for states in $`H_{st}^g(\widehat{Q})`$, where $`A`$ and $`B`$ are indices, such that

$$(\psi _g^B,\psi _g^A)=\delta ^{AB},$$
(B.3)
and each cohomology class has just one representative which is a linear combination of the basis elements. We then make the map

$$\psi _g^A\psi _g^A.$$
(B.4)
## Appendix C D=10 Gamma matrices

### C.1 Construction and basic properties

The Dirac gamma matrices in ten dimensions are $`32\times 32`$ matrices $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AB}^m`$ obeying the Clifford algebra

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AB}^m\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BC}^n+\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AB}^n\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BC}^m=2\eta ^{mn}\delta _{AC}.$$
(C.1)
We choose the reducible, Majorana-Weyl representation, in which $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AB}^m`$’s are real and consist of two symmetric $`16\times 16`$ matrices $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m`$ and $`\gamma ^{m\alpha \beta }`$ on the off-diagonals

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }^m=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \gamma ^{m\alpha \beta }\\ \gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m& 0\end{array}\right).$$
(C.2)
In this notation, $`\theta ^\alpha `$ is Weyl and $`\theta _\alpha `$ anti-Weyl, thus a down spinor index can only be contracted with an up index when building Lorentz covariant tensors. Since $`\gamma ^m`$ are real, the Majorana condition simply says that $`\theta ^\alpha =\theta _{}^{\alpha }{}_{}{}^{}`$. We generally deal with only Weyl spinors and hence use the $`16\times 16`$ $`\gamma ^m`$ notation.

The Clifford algebra in terms of $`\gamma ^m`$ reads

$$\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m\gamma ^{n\beta \delta }+\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^n\gamma ^{m\beta \delta }=2\eta ^{mn}\delta _\alpha ^\delta .$$
(C.3)
The $`16\times 16`$ gamma matrices can be built from the $`SO(8)`$ gamma matrices which themselves are direct products of Pauli matrices . The antisymmetric, real $`SO(8)`$ Pauli matrices $`\{\sigma _{a\dot{b}}^ii=1,\mathrm{},8\}`$, which obey the Clifford algebra

$$\sigma _{a\dot{a}}^i\sigma _{\dot{a}b}^j+\sigma _{a\dot{a}}^j\sigma _{\dot{a}b}^i=2\delta ^{ij}\delta _{ab},$$
(C.4)
can be used to construct $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m`$. Specifically

$$\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^i=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& \sigma _{a\dot{a}}^i\\ \sigma _{\dot{b}b}^i& 0\end{array}\right),$$
(C.5)
where $`i=1,\mathrm{},8`$. We define $`\gamma ^{m\alpha \beta }`$ by exactly the same expression. We see that a Weyl spinor splits as $`\theta ^\alpha =(\theta ^a,\theta ^{\dot{a}})`$. A ninth matrix which anticommutes with these eight is given by $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^9=\gamma _{\alpha \beta _1}^1\gamma ^{2\beta _1\beta _2}\mathrm{}\gamma _{\beta _7\beta }^8`$, which given the $`SO(8)`$ matrices we can calculate below. The values of $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^0`$ and $`\gamma ^{0\alpha \beta }`$ are similarly defined in order to be consistent with their algebra (C.3)

$`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^9=\gamma ^{9\alpha \beta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)`$ (C.6)
$`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^0=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)`$ $`\gamma ^{0\alpha \beta }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right).`$ (C.7)
A generic antisymmetric product of $`r`$ $`\gamma ^m`$’s is notated as

$$\gamma ^{m_1m_2\mathrm{}m_r}=\gamma ^{[m_1}\gamma ^{m_2}\mathrm{}\gamma ^{m_r]},$$
(C.8)
where a factor of $`1/r!`$ is implicit, remembering that a $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^{m_1}`$ must contract with a $`\gamma ^{m_2\beta \delta }`$ etc.. This larger set of gamma matrices, defined by the full set of antisymmetric combinations, form a basis for bispinors. There is a duality

$$\gamma ^{m_1m_2\mathrm{}m_r}=\frac{1}{(10r)!}\epsilon ^{m_1\mathrm{}m_rm_{r+1}\mathrm{}m_{10}}\gamma _{m_{r+1}}\mathrm{}\gamma _{m_{10}},$$
(C.9)
in particular, $`\gamma ^{mnpqr}`$ is self-dual, so only half of the $`\gamma ^{mnpqr}`$’s are independent. A generic bispinor with either 2 lower or 2 upper indices is a linear combination of $`\gamma ^m`$, $`\gamma ^{mnp}`$ and $`\gamma ^{mnpqr}`$. For example

$$f_{\alpha \beta }=f_m\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m+f_{mnp}\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^{mnp}+f_{mnpqr}\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^{mnpqr},$$
(C.10)
where $`f_m`$, $`f_{mnp}`$ and $`f_{mnpqr}`$ are calculated in terms of $`f_{\alpha \beta }`$ by using the orthogonal properties of the gamma matrices. For example $`f_m=\gamma _m^{\alpha \beta }f_{\alpha \beta }/16`$.

From the definition, $`\gamma ^m`$ and $`\gamma ^{mnpqr}`$ are symmetric, while $`\gamma ^{mnp}`$ is antisymmetric. Similarly, $`\delta _{}^{\alpha }{}_{\beta }{}^{}`$, $`\gamma _{}^{mn\alpha }{}_{\beta }{}^{}`$ and $`\gamma _{}^{mnpq\alpha }{}_{\beta }{}^{}`$ form a basis for bispinors with one lower and one upper index. The matrices $`\delta _{}^{\alpha }{}_{\beta }{}^{}`$, $`\gamma _{}^{mnpq\alpha }{}_{\beta }{}^{}`$ are symmetric, while $`\gamma _{}^{mn\alpha }{}_{\beta }{}^{}`$ is antisymmetric.

### C.2 Gamma matrix identities

In principle, all identities can be calculated from the Fierz identity and the Clifford algebra identity given below

$`\gamma _{m\alpha (\beta }\gamma _{\gamma \delta )}^m=0,`$ $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^{(m}\gamma _{}^{n)}{}_{}{}^{\beta \delta }=\eta ^{mn}\delta _\alpha ^\delta ,`$ (C.11)
though in practice, this is far too time consuming for all but the most simple identities. A common requirement is to calculate a product of $`\gamma `$’s in terms of a sum of $`\gamma `$’s. For this purpose, a slicker method is to use Young tableaux, which are useful for determining direct products of tensors in terms of sums of tensors with definite (anti)-symmetry properties in their indices. For example

$$\gamma ^m\gamma ^{npqr}=k_1\gamma ^{mnpqr}+k_2\eta ^{m[n}\gamma ^{pqr]},$$
(C.12)
where $`k_1`$ and $`k_2`$ are constants, and we have used that $`\gamma ^{(m}\gamma ^{n)}=\eta ^{mn}`$. We then calculate $`k_1`$ and $`k_2`$ by substituting particular values of $`m,n,p,q,r`$ into the above equation. In this case $`k_1=1`$ and $`k_2=4`$. Some more useful identities are

$`\gamma ^{m\alpha \beta }\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^n=16\eta ^{mn},`$ $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m\gamma _m^{\beta \delta }=10\delta _\alpha ^\delta ,`$ (C.13)
$$\gamma ^m\gamma ^{np}=\gamma ^{mnp}+2\eta ^{m[n}\gamma ^{p]}.$$
(C.14)
## Appendix D Description of pure spinors using U(5) co-ordinates

By first Wick-rotating from $`SO(9,1)`$ to $`SO(10)`$ and using $`U(5)`$ co-ordinates, we can parameterize the pure spinor constraint surface non-degenerately in a certain co-ordinate patch.

Using Berkovits’ notation,

$`X^a=(X^1+iX^2),\mathrm{},(X^9+iX^{10}),`$ $`a=1,\mathrm{},5,`$ (D.1)
$`X_a=X_{}^{a}{}_{}{}^{}=(X^1iX^2),\mathrm{},(X^9iX^{10}),`$ (D.2)
where $`X^{10}=iX^0`$. So $`X^a`$ and $`X_a`$ transform in the 5 and $`\overline{\text{5}}`$ representation of the $`U(5)`$ group. Thus, we define the $`U(5)`$ gamma matrices $`\gamma ^a`$ and $`\gamma _a`$ in the same manner, except we include a normalization factor so that $`\gamma ^a=(\gamma ^1+i\gamma ^2)/\sqrt{2}`$. The gamma matrix algebra is

$`\{\gamma ^a,\gamma ^b\}=\{\gamma _a,\gamma _b\}=0,`$ $`\{\gamma ^a,\gamma _b\}=2\delta _b^a,`$ (D.3)
so we can treat $`\gamma ^a`$ as raising and $`\gamma _a`$ as lowering operators in order to create a generic spinor. For example, the ground state spinor $`u_+^\alpha `$ is defined by $`\gamma _au_+=0`$ for $`a=1,\mathrm{},5`$. By acting with up to 5 $`\gamma ^a`$’s on the ground state $`u_+`$, we obtain the full set of spinors. We see that acting with an odd number of $`\gamma ^a`$’s on $`u_+^\alpha `$ changes the chirality, since an up $`\alpha `$ index can only contract with a down $`\alpha `$ index. For example $`u_+^\alpha `$ and $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^au_+^\beta `$ have opposite chirality. A basis for the spinor $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ is given by $`u_+`$, $`(u^{ab})^\alpha =\gamma ^a\gamma ^bu_+`$ and $`u_a^\alpha =\epsilon _{abcde}\gamma ^b\gamma ^c\gamma ^d\gamma ^eu_+`$. Thus

$$\lambda ^\alpha =\lambda ^+u_+^\alpha +\lambda _{ab}(u^{ab})^\alpha +\lambda ^au_a^\alpha ,$$
(D.4)
where $`(\lambda ^+,\lambda _{ab},\lambda ^a)`$ transform in the $`(\text{1},\overline{\text{10}},\text{5})`$ representation of $`U(5)`$. It’s a similar story for a spinor of opposite chirality, like $`w_\alpha `$, except that the basis comes from applying 1, 3 and 5 $`\gamma ^a`$’s respectively to $`u_+^\alpha `$. The spinor $`w_\alpha `$ splits into $`(w_+,w^{ab},w_a)`$, a $`(\overline{\text{1}},\text{10},\overline{\text{5}})`$ representation of $`U(5)`$. In calculating $`\lambda ^\alpha w_\alpha `$ for example in terms of $`U(5)`$ co-ordinates, we use the result that $`u_+\gamma ^1\gamma ^2\gamma ^3\gamma ^4\gamma ^5u_+=1`$ and that $`u_+\gamma ^a\gamma ^b\gamma ^cu_+`$ and $`u_+\gamma ^au_+`$ vanish. Thus, the pure spinor constraints become

$`\lambda \gamma ^a\lambda =\lambda ^+\lambda ^a+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}\epsilon ^{abcde}\lambda _{bc}\lambda _{de}=0,`$ (D.5)
$`\lambda \gamma _a\lambda =\lambda ^b\lambda _{ab}=0.`$ (D.6)
In the region defined by $`\lambda ^+0`$, we use equation (D.5) to write $`\lambda ^a`$ in terms of $`\lambda _+`$ and $`\lambda _{ab}`$

$$\lambda ^a=\frac{1}{8}(\lambda ^+)^1\epsilon ^{abcde}\lambda _{bc}\lambda _{de}=0.$$
(D.7)
We then find that the expression for $`\lambda ^a`$ in equation (D.7) automatically satisfies the second condition (D.6), since, using the Young tableaux expression for tensors of specific symmetry properties, $`\lambda _{a[b}\lambda _{cd}\lambda _{ef]}=k_1\lambda _{[ab}\lambda _{cd}\lambda _{ef]}+k_2\lambda _{(a[b)}\lambda _{cd}\lambda _{ef]}=0`$, where $`k_1`$ and $`k_2`$ are constants, and $`\lambda _{(ab)}=0`$.

Since the ghosts $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ are constrained, leaving 11 free complex parameters, i.e. $`\lambda ^\alpha =\lambda ^\alpha (\lambda ^+,\lambda _{ab})`$, we expect some suitable constraints to be placed on $`w_\alpha `$, such that it also has 11 complex degrees of freedom. Firstly, note that if we treat $`\lambda \gamma ^a\lambda =0`$ as first class constraints, recalling that $`\lambda \gamma _a\lambda =0`$ are redundant for $`\lambda ^+0`$, the variation of $`w_a`$ under a gauge transformation is given by

$$\delta w_a=\epsilon _a\lambda ^+,$$
(D.8)
where $`\epsilon _a(\tau )`$ is a local, bosonic parameter. Therefore, a good canonical gauge, which is both accessible and completely fixes the gauge symmetry, is given by

$$w_a=0.$$
(D.9)
The constraints $`\lambda \gamma ^a\lambda =0`$ and $`w_a=0`$ describe a second class constraint surface in the region $`\lambda ^+0`$. We parameterize the constraint surface using the co-ordinates $`\lambda ^+`$, $`\lambda _{ab}`$, $`w_+`$, $`w_{ab}`$. The induced, Poisson bracket between the co-ordinates of the constraint surface needs to be calculated. The simplest way to calculate the bracket is to write the ghost action for the superparticle

$$S_g=𝑑\tau (\dot{\lambda }^aw_a+\dot{\lambda }^+w_++\frac{1}{2}\dot{\lambda }_{ab}w^{ab}\mathrm{\Lambda }_a\lambda \gamma ^a\lambda \mathrm{\Lambda }^a\lambda \gamma _a\lambda ),$$
(D.10)
then parameterize the second class constraint surface with $`\lambda ^+,\lambda _{ab},w_+,w_{ab}`$ so that

$$S_g=𝑑\tau (\dot{\lambda }^+w_++\frac{1}{2}\dot{\lambda }_{ab}w^{ab}).$$
(D.11)
It is clear to see that $`(\lambda ^+,w_+)`$ and $`(\lambda _{ab},w^{ab})`$ are two conjugate pairs. The bracket between $`\lambda ^\alpha `$ and $`w_\beta `$ is given by

$$[\lambda ^\alpha (\lambda ^+,\lambda _{ab}),w_\beta (w_+,w^{ab})]_{}=\delta _\beta ^\alpha u_a^\alpha v_\beta ^a,$$
(D.12)
where $`[,]_{}`$ is the induced Poisson bracket on the constraint surface, and where $`u_a^\alpha `$ and $`v_\beta ^b`$ are defined as basis spinors for $`\lambda ^a`$ and $`w_b`$ respectively as in equation (D.4).

Instead of parameterizing the constraint surface, we could have alternatively defined a Dirac bracket.

## Appendix E D=10, N=1, Brink-Schwarz superparticle and super-Maxwell theory

### E.1 D=10, N=1, Brink-Schwarz superparticle in the semi-light-cone gauge

For brevity, we directly specify the Brink-Schwarz superparticle in the semi-light-cone gauge, with no derivation. In this gauge, the fermionic, $`\kappa `$ symmetry is gauge-fixed, but not the world-line reparameterization symmetry.

The system is defined by fundamental, bosonic operators $`\widehat{X}^m`$, $`\widehat{P}_m`$, and fermionic operators $`\widehat{S}^a`$, $`a=1,\mathrm{},8`$, whose quantum commutator algebra is

$`\widehat{X}^m\widehat{P}_n\widehat{P}_n\widehat{X}^m=i\delta _n^m,`$ $`\widehat{S}^a\widehat{S}^b+\widehat{S}^b\widehat{S}^a=2\delta _{ab},`$ (E.1)
where all other brackets are zero. There is also the first class constraint $`\widehat{P}_m\widehat{P}^m=0`$, which generates the world-line reparameterization symmetry and the Hamiltonian is $`\widehat{P}_m\widehat{P}^m/2`$.

So $`\widehat{S}^a`$ form a Clifford algebra and a representation can be built from the SO(8) Pauli matrices $`\sigma _{a\dot{b}}^i`$, described in appendix C. A generic wavefunction $`\psi _{BS}(X)`$ in the representation space is

$`\psi _{BS}(X)=e^{ik.X}(\epsilon ^i|i>+\epsilon ^{\dot{a}}|\dot{a}>),`$ $`k^mk_m=0,`$ (E.2)
where $`\epsilon ^i`$, $`\epsilon ^{\dot{b}}`$ are bosonic constants, $`\epsilon ^i`$ being a spin 1 $`SO(8)`$ vector, and $`\epsilon ^{\dot{a}}`$ a spin $`1/2`$ anti-chiral, SO(8) spinor, and where $`i,\dot{a}=1,\mathrm{},8`$. Also states $`|i>`$ and $`|\dot{a}>`$ are normalized as $`<i|j>=\delta _{ij}`$, $`<\dot{a}|\dot{b}>=\delta _{\dot{a}\dot{b}}`$, and $`\widehat{S}^a`$ acts on $`\psi _{BS}`$ as follows

$$\widehat{S}^a\psi _{BS}(X)=e^{ik.X}(\sigma _{a\dot{b}}^i\epsilon ^{\dot{b}}|i>+\sigma _{a\dot{b}}^i\epsilon ^i|\dot{b}>).$$
(E.3)
The inner product between two physical states $`\psi _{BS1}`$ and $`\psi _{BS2}`$ is given by

$`(\psi _{BS1},\psi _{BS2})((\epsilon _1^i)^{}\epsilon _2^i+(\epsilon _1^{\dot{b}})^{}\epsilon _2^{\dot{b}})\delta ^{(10)}(k_1k_2).`$ (E.4)
We can show that $`S^a=i2(2)^{\frac{1}{4}}(P^+)^{\frac{1}{2}}\theta ^a`$, where $`\theta ^\alpha =(\theta ^a,\theta ^{\dot{a}})`$ is the usual fermionic, superspace variable and $`P^\pm =(P^0\pm P^9)/\sqrt{2}`$.

The wavefunction $`\psi _{BS}`$ corresponds, up to normalization constants, to the light-cone gauge, classical field multiplet of $`D=10`$, $`N=1`$ super Maxwell theory

$$\psi _{BS}=a^i|i>i2^{\frac{1}{4}}(P^+)^{\frac{1}{2}}\chi ^{\dot{b}}|\dot{b}>,$$
(E.5)
where $`a^i`$ and $`\chi ^{\dot{b}}`$ behave like the light-cone gauge photon and photino fields of super-Maxwell. The normalization factor is included , so that the super-Maxwell and the BS superparticle supersymmetry transformation exactly coincides.

### E.2 D=10, N=1 Super-Maxwell

#### E.2.1 The action, symmetries and light-cone gauge fields

The SO(9,1) covariant action is the usual super Yang-Mills one, with $`U(1)`$ gauge group

$$S=d^{10}X(\frac{i}{2}\chi \gamma ^m_m\chi \frac{1}{4}f^2),$$
(E.6)
where $`\chi ^\alpha `$ is a Majorana-Weyl spinor, and where $`f_{mn}=ig[_ma_n_na_m]`$ is the field strength for the $`U(1)`$ gauge field $`a_m`$. The infinitesimal gauge symmetry is

$`\delta \chi ^\alpha =0`$ $`\delta a_m=g_m\varphi (X),`$ (E.7)
and the action possesses the following supersymmetry,

$`\delta \chi ^\alpha =f_{mn}(\gamma ^{mn}\epsilon )^\alpha `$ $`\delta a_m=i(\epsilon \gamma _m\chi ),`$ (E.8)
for infinitesimal, fermionic, Majorana-Weyl constant $`\epsilon `$.

To describe the physical modes, we choose the light-cone gauge $`_ma^m=0`$, $`a^+=0`$, where we assume again that $`p^+0`$. In momentum space

$`a^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{p^+}}p^ia^i,`$ $`^2a^i=0,`$ (E.9)
thus the 8 massless, transverse modes $`a^i`$, describe the bosonic, physical sector. Also, $`\chi ^\alpha `$ obeys the Dirac equation $`\gamma ^mp_m\chi =0`$, which can be written as

$`\chi ^a={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2)^{\frac{1}{2}}p^+}}p^i\sigma _{a\dot{b}}^i\chi ^{\dot{b}},`$ $`^2\chi ^{\dot{a}}=0,`$ (E.10)
leaving the 8 massless modes $`\chi ^{\dot{a}}`$, which describe the fermionic physical sector.

#### E.2.2 The superspace formulation

For details of $`D=10`$, $`N=1`$ superspace, super Yang-Mills see . We only specify results relevant to this work.

The constraint equation is $`F_{\alpha \beta }=0`$, where $`F_{\alpha \beta }`$ is the spin one superfield strength

$$F_{\alpha \beta }=D_\alpha A_\beta +D_\beta A_\alpha +2i\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^mA_m,$$
(E.11)
and where $`D_\alpha `$ is the covariant superspace derivative of equation (2.6), and $`(A_\alpha ,A_m)`$ the superspace, gauge connection. Since $`F_{\alpha \beta }`$ is a symmetric bispinor, it can be determined in terms of symmetric gamma matrices of the same chirality $`F_{\alpha \beta }=F_m\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m+F_{mnpqr}\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^{mnpqr}`$, as in appendix C. Thus, the constraint equations split into two pieces, the first of which, $`F_m=0`$, simply determines $`A_m`$ in terms of $`A_\alpha `$, and the second of which, $`F_{mnpqr}=0`$, implies the equations of motion for $`A_\alpha `$

$$\gamma _{mnpqr}^{\alpha \beta }D_\alpha A_\beta =0,$$
(E.12)
which have the effect of placing the theory on-shell. The equations of motion for the super field-strengths can be deduced from the Bianchi identities and the constraint equation . They are

$`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m_mW^\beta =0,`$ $`^mF_{mn}=0,`$ (E.13)
where $`W^\alpha `$ is the photino superfield-strength, given by $`W^\alpha =(\gamma ^m)^{\alpha \beta }F_{m\beta }/10`$, and where $`F_{mn}=_mA_n_nA_m`$ and $`F_{\alpha m}=D_\alpha A_m_mA_\alpha `$. The photino equation is equivalent to $`^mF_{m\alpha }=0`$.

In a $`\theta ^\alpha `$ expansion of the field strengths, the zero components are $`F^{mn}|_{\theta =0}=f^{mn}`$ and $`W^\alpha |_{\theta =0}=\chi ^\alpha `$. We can choose a gauge, using $`\delta A_\alpha =D_\alpha \varphi `$, such that

$$A_\alpha =ia_m(X)\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m\theta ^\beta \chi ^\gamma (X)\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m\gamma _{m\gamma \delta }\theta ^\beta \theta ^\delta +\mathrm{},$$
(E.14)
where $`a_m`$ and $`\chi ^\alpha `$ obey the super-Maxwell equations of motion in the Lorentz gauge, $`^2a_m=^ma_m=0`$ and $`\gamma _{\alpha \beta }^m_m\chi ^\beta =0`$. The $`\mathrm{}`$ denote terms at higher order in $`\theta `$ which depend on space-time derivatives of $`a_m`$ and $`\chi ^\alpha `$.