On the quantization of reducible gauge systems

Abstract

Reducible gauge theories with constraints linear in the momenta are quantized. The equivalence of the reduced phase space quantization, Dirac quantization, and BRST quantization is established, provided one transforms appropriately the Dirac wave functions under changes of representation of the constraint surface and of the reducibility functions. The ghosts of ghosts are found to play a crucial role in the equivalence proof.