EXTENDED FORM METHOD OF ANTIFIELD-BRST FORMALISM FOR TOPOLOGICAL QUANTUM-FIELD THEORIES

We present a concise method to construct a BRST-invariant action for the topological quantum field theories in the Batalin-Vilkovisky antifield formalism. The BV action that is a solution to the master equation is directly obtained by means of the extended forms that involve all the required ghosts and antifields. The BV actions for the non-Abelian BF theories (in four and higher dimensions) and for the Chern-Simons theory are constructed by means of the extended form method. An extension of the BF theory in four dimensions to include a 'cosmological term' is also examined and the close connection with the topological Yang-Mills theory is indicated.