BRST cohomology and highest weight vectors. I (Q2639946)

In field theory, ``physical states'' can be described in terms of cohomology, so-called BRST-cohomology. In this paper, covering and uniting a multitude of notions and approaches, BRST-cohomology is derived with the help of a certain twisted version of semi-infinite cohomology (the module of coefficients is twisted by a highest weight module; a technique similar to that used by \textit{J. N. Bernstein} and \textit{S. I. Gelfand} [Compos. Math. 41, 245-285 (1980; Zbl 0445.17006)]).