# nLab ghost field

Contents

### Context

#### Fields and quanta

fields and particles in particle physics

and in the standard model of particle physics:

force field gauge bosons

scalar bosons

flavors of fundamental fermions in the
standard model of particle physics:
generation of fermions1st generation2nd generation3d generation
quarks ($q$)
up-typeup quark ($u$)charm quark ($c$)top quark ($t$)
down-typedown quark ($d$)strange quark ($s$)bottom quark ($b$)
leptons
chargedelectronmuontauon
neutralelectron neutrinomuon neutrinotau neutrino
bound states:
mesonslight mesons:
pion ($u d$)
ρ-meson ($u d$)
ω-meson ($u d$)
f1-meson
a1-meson
strange-mesons:
ϕ-meson ($s \bar s$),
kaon, K*-meson ($u s$, $d s$)
eta-meson ($u u + d d + s s$)

charmed heavy mesons:
D-meson ($u c$, $d c$, $s c$)
J/ψ-meson ($c \bar c$)
bottom heavy mesons:
B-meson ($q b$)
ϒ-meson ($b \bar b$)
baryonsnucleons:
proton $(u u d)$
neutron $(u d d)$

(also: antiparticles)

effective particles

hadrons (bound states of the above quarks)

solitons

in grand unified theory

minimally extended supersymmetric standard model

superpartners

bosinos:

dark matter candidates

Exotica

auxiliary fields

# Contents

## Idea

In gauge theory the configuration space/phase space is not in general a smooth space, but a smooth groupoid: the gauge transformations between gauge fields are the morphisms of this groupoid.

The infinitesimal approximation to this smooth groupoid is a Lie algebroid. The dg-algebra of functions on this is called the BRST complex of the gauge theory. It contains in degree-0 the (duals to) the gauge fields and in degree-1 the cotangents to the gauge transformations. These degree-1 elements that appear here alongside the physical fields in degree 0 are called ghost fields in the physics literature.

If there are higher gauge transformationsgauge-of-gauge transformations” then the BRST complex has generators in higher degree, too, the cotangents to these higher gauge transformations. These are then called ghost-of-ghost fields.

For more details and further pointers see at BRST complex and in particular at BV-BRST formalism.

Last revised on December 9, 2017 at 10:05:57. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.