A NOTE ON THE (ANTI-)BRST INVARIANT LAGRANGIAN DENSITIES FOR THE FREE ABELIAN 2-FORM GAUGE THEORY

Abstract

We show that the previously known off-shell nilpotent [Formula: see text] and absolutely anticommuting (sb sab + sab sb = 0) Becchi–Rouet–Stora–Tyutin (BRST) transformations (sb) and anti-BRST transformations (sab) are the symmetry transformations of the appropriate Lagrangian densities of a four (3+1)-dimensional (4D) free Abelian 2-form gauge theory which do not explicitly incorporate a very specific constrained field condition through a Lagrange multiplier 4D vector field. The above condition, which is the analogue of the Curci–Ferrari restriction of the non-Abelian 1-form gauge theory, emerges from the Euler–Lagrange equations of motion of our present theory and ensures the absolute anticommutativity of the transformations s(a)b. Thus, the coupled Lagrangian densities, proposed in our present investigation, are aesthetically more appealing and more economical.