Origin of antifields in the Batalin-Vilkovisky lagrangian formalism

Abstract

The antifields of the Batalin-Vilkovisky lagrangian quantization are standard antighosts of certain collective fields. These collective fields ensure that Schwinger-Dyson equations are satisfied as a consequence of the gauge symmetry algebra. The associated antibracket and its canonical structure appear naturally if one integrates out the corresponding ghost fields. An analogous Master Equation for the action involving these ghosts follows from the requirement that the path integral gives rise to the correct Schwinger-Dyson equations.