No label defined (Q4036990)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0755.00014.] When dealing with Hamiltonian systems with constraints it is often useful to consider an extended phase space \((M_{ext},\omega_{ext})\) by introducing additional ``ghost'' degrees of freedom, in particular by using anti-commuting coordinates such that \(M_{ext}\) becomes a supermanifold. Any such approach may be called a BRST construction, refering to the original work by Becchi, Rouet, Stora and Tyutin on a specific kind of symmetry (BRST symmetry) that appears when a gauge invariant system is enlarged by introducing ghosts. The paper under review summarizes in an informal way what is known and proved about BRST constructions, in particular in view of quantization of constrained systems and in view of describing the Poisson algebra of the reduced system cohomologically.