Path integral quantization in the temporal gauge

The quantization of non-Abelian gauge theories in the temporal gauge is studied within Feynman's path integral approach. The standard asymptotic boundary conditions are only imposed on the transverse gauge fields. The fictituous longitudinal gauge quanta are eliminated asymptotically by modified boundary conditions. This abolishes the residual time-independent gauge transformations and leads to a unique fixing of the temporal gauge. The resulting path integral for the generating functional respects automatically Gauss's law. The correct gauge field propagator is derived. It does not suffer from gauge singularities at n x k = 0 present in the usual treatment of axial gauges. The standard principal value prescription does not work. As a check, the Wilson loop in temporal gauge is calculated with the new propagator. To second order (and to all orders in the Abelian case) the result agrees with the one obtained in the Feynman and Coulomb gauge. (orig.)