GAUGE-INVARIANT QUANTISATION OF CHIRAL GAUGE THEORIES

The path-integral functional of chiral gauge theories with background gauge potentials are derived in the holomorphic representation. Justification is provided, from first quantum mechanical principles, for the appearance of a functional phase factor of the gauge fields in order to maintain the gauge invariance. This term is shown to originate either from the Berry phase of the first-quantized hamiltonians or from the normal ordering of the second-quantized hamiltonian with respect to the Dirac in-vacuum. The quantization of the chiral Schwinger model is taken as an example.