Notes on the \(L_\infty\)-approach to local gauge field theories (Q6107812)

This note is motivated by Lagrangian gauge theories in physics. Mathematically, such theories can be described in the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formalism by symplectic Q-manifolds, which are symplectic graded manifolds together with a compatible homological vector field \(Q\) (hence \(Q\) has degree 1 and \(Q^2=0\)). At a point where \(Q\) vanishes, transporting the structures to the tangent space at the point, one obtains a cyclic \(L_{\infty}\)-algebra (cyclic refers to the fact that there is a bilinear form compatible with the multibrackets of the \(L_{\infty}\)-algebra, inherited from the symplectic form). In physical applications, often such a graded manifold is infinite-dimensional, and one cannot work as in the finite-dimensional case. The note addresses this issue -- and in particular the interpretation of morphisms -- in the jet-bundle description of the BV formalism for Lagrangian gauge theories, and then proceeds to consider the more general case known as gauge PDE (or generalized AKSZ) approach.