GAUGE-INVARIANT REFORMULATION OF THE VECTOR SCHWINGER MODEL WITH A PHOTON MASS TERM AND ITS HAMILTONIAN, PATH INTEGRAL AND BRST FORMULATIONS

Abstract

Using the Stueckelberg formalism, we construct a gauge-invariant version of the vector Schwinger model (VSM) with a photon mass term studied by one of us recently. This model describes two-dimensional massive electrodynamics with massless fermions, where the left-handed and right-handed fermions are coupled to the electromagnetic field with equal couplings. This model describing the 2D massive electrodynamics becomes gauge-noninvariant (GNI). This is in contrast to the case of the massless VSM which is a gauge-invariant (GI) theory (as a consequence of demanding the regularization for the theory to be GI). In this work we first construct a GI theory corresponding to this model describing the 2D massive electrodynamics, using the Stueckelberg formalism and then we recover the physical contents of the original GNI theory studied earlier, under some special gauge choice. We then study the Hamiltonian, path integral and BRST formulations of this GI theory under appropriate gauge-fixing. The theory presents a new class of models in the 2D quantum electrodynamics with massless fermions but with a photon mass term.