BRST-invariant boundary conditions and strong ellipticity

The quantisation of gauge theories usually procedes through the introduction of ghost fields and BRST symmetry. In the case of quantum gravity in the presence of boundaries, the BRST-invariant boundary value problem for the gauge field operators is non-elliptic, and consequently the definition of the effective action using heat-kernel techniques becomes problematic. This paper examines general classes of BRST-invariant boundary conditions and presents new boundary conditions for quantum gravity which fix the extrinsic curvature on the boundary and lead to a well-defined effective action. This prompts a discussion of the wider issue of non-ellipticity in BRST-invariant boundary value problems and when the use of gauge-fixing terms on the boundary can resolve the issue.

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