SPACETIME LOCALITY OF THE BRST FORMALISM

The spacetime locality of the BRST formalism is investigated. The analysis covers gauge theories with either closed or open algebras and is undertaken in the explicit context of the antifield formulation of the BRST theory. Under appropriate conditions, the homology of the Koszul-Tate differential modulo the spacetime exterior derivative is shown to be trivial in the space of non-integrated densities with positive antighost and pure ghost numbers. As a result: (i) the solution of the master equation can be taken to be a local functional; (ii) the gauge fixed action is also a local functional provided one takes the gauge fixing fermion to be a local functional as well; and (iii) the BRST transformation is local.