The BV formalism: Theory and application to a matrix model

Abstract

We review the BV formalism in the context of [Formula: see text]-dimensional gauge theories. For a gauge theory [Formula: see text] with an affine configuration space [Formula: see text], we describe an algorithm to construct a corresponding extended theory [Formula: see text], obtained by introducing ghost and anti-ghost fields, with [Formula: see text] a solution of the classical master equation in [Formula: see text]. This construction is the first step to define the (gauge-fixed) BRST cohomology complex associated to [Formula: see text], which encodes many interesting information on the initial gauge theory [Formula: see text]. The second part of this article is devoted to the application of this method to a matrix model endowed with a [Formula: see text]-gauge symmetry, explicitly determining the corresponding [Formula: see text] and the general solution [Formula: see text] of the classical master equation for the model.