SECOND CLASS CONSTRAINTS IN THE BATALIN-VILKOVISKY LAGRANGIAN BRST QUANTIZATION

Abstract

The antibracket-antifield BRST formalism developed by Batalin and Vilkovisky is applied to constrained Hamiltonian systems with second class constraints. We derive an effective path integral in which first class and second class constraints are incorporated in a BRST invariant gauge fixed action. Full explicit agreement is found with the canonical path integral quantization of systems with second class constraints and, consequently, with the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian BRST quantization of first order Hamiltonian systems where the second class constraints have been eliminated by introducing the Dirac bracket.