BRST in the exact renormalization group

Abstract

AbstractWe show, explicitly within perturbation theory, that the quantum master equation and the Wilsonian renormalization group flow equation can be combined such that for the continuum effective action, quantum BRST invariance is not broken by the presence of an effective ultraviolet cutoff $\Lambda$, despite the fact that the structure demands quantum corrections that naïvely break the gauge invariance, such as a mass term for a non-Abelian gauge field. Exploiting the derivative expansion, BRST cohomological methods fix the solution up to choice of renormalization conditions, without inputting the form of the classical, or bare, interactions. Legendre transformation results in an equivalent description in terms of solving the modified Slavnov–Taylor identities and the flow of the Legendre effective action under an infrared cutoff $\Lambda$ (i.e. effective average action). The flow generates a canonical transformation that automatically solves the Slavnov–Taylor identities for the wavefunction renormalization constants. We confirm this structure in detail at tree level and one loop. Under flow of $\Lambda$, the standard results are obtained for the beta function, anomalous dimension, and physical amplitudes, up to the choice of the renormalization scheme.