Gauge PDE and AKSZ‐type sigma models

A gauge PDE is a natural notion which arises by abstracting what physicists call a local gauge field theory defined in terms of BV‐BRST differential (not necessarily Lagrangian). We study supergeometry of gauge PDEs paying particular attention to globally well‐defined definitions and equivalences of such objects. We demonstrate that a natural geometrical language to work with gauge PDEs is that of Q‐bundles. In particular, we demonstrate that any gauge PDE can be embedded into a super‐jet bundle of the Q‐bundle. This gives a globally well‐defined version of the so‐called parent formulation. In the case of reparameterization‐invariant systems, the parent formulation takes the form of an AKSZ‐type sigma model with an infinite‐dimensional target space. (© 2019 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)