Quantization of the Yang-Mills field and Mandelstam's theory in gauge-independent path-dependent formalism

Abstract

We derive commutation relations (CR's) between gauge-invariant quantities in the Yang-Mills field theory by applying the Peierls method. The CR's obtained are different from those given by Mandelstam in his gauge-independent, path-dependent formalism. However, our CR's are shown to give a consistently quantized field theory, while his CR's do not. In fact, there exist systematic errors in Mandelstam's treatment of the covariant Green's functions. On the other hand, if we correctly treat covariant Green's functions guided by his procedure, our CR's are shown to lead to the same Feynman rules for the Yang-Mills field as prescribed by Feynman, DeWitt, Faddeev and Popov, and Mandelstam.