Superspace formulation in the absence of full anti-BRST symmetry

Abstract

There are two known approaches to construct the six-dimensional superspace formulation of a gauge theory where the additional two dimensions are Grassmannian. One of the approaches (the second approach in this paper) requires both BRST and anti-BRST symmetries for the superspace formulation. In this paper, we consider an effective theory in a recently introduced quadratic gauge which has two pairs of ghosts. The theory does not have a full anti-BRST symmetry and only has full BRST symmetry. We show that it is possible to partially formulate this effective theory in the superspace using the second approach even in the absence of full anti-BRST symmetry due to the peculiar structure of the theory. We encounter a couple of technical difficulties which further brings useful insights.