Covariant quantization of chiral bosons and OSP(1,1vertical stroke2) symmetry

The covariant quantization of a chiral boson is carried out on an extended phase space. To convert the second-class constraint d+Φ(σ,τ)=0 into first-class ones, a la Faddeev and Shatashvili, infinitely many auxiliary scalars are introduced. We have explored the OSp(1,1vertical stroke2) symmetry, which is a group theoretical extension of the BRST symmetry, to prove the no-ghost theorem and the chirality of the physical subspace. The infinite product of determinants from the ghosts and auxiliary scalars in path integral are regularized in an OSp invariant way, leading to the desired partition function. The formulation holds good in the presence of static background gauge fields. (orig.)