The regularized BRST Jacobian of pure Yang-Mills theory

Abstract

The Jacobian for infinitesimal BRST transformations of path integrals for pure Yang-Mills theory, viewed as a matrix $\unity +ΔJ$ in the space of Yang-Mills fields and (anti)ghosts, contains off-diagonal terms. Naively, the trace of $ΔJ$ vanishes, being proportional to the trace of the structure constants. However, the consistent regulator $\cR$, constructed from a general method, also contains off-diagonal terms. An explicit computation demonstrates that the regularized Jacobian $Tr\ ΔJ\exp -\cR /M^2$ for $M^2\rightarrow \infty $ is the variation of a local counterterm, which we give. This is a direct proof at the level of path integrals that there is no BRST anomaly.