Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2022) 137: 511
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02699-3

Regular Article

Particle on a torus knot: symplectic analysis

Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Calicut, 673601, Kozhikode, Kerala, India

^b saurabh@nitc.ac.in

Received: 11 October 2021
Accepted: 6 April 2022
Published online: 26 April 2022

Abstract

We quantize a particle confined to move on a torus knot satisfying constraint condition ($p\theta +q\varphi )\approx 0$, within the context of a geometrically motivated approach—the Faddeev–Jackiw formalism. We also deduce the constraint spectrum and discern the basic brackets of the theory. We further reformulate the original gauge non-invariant theory into a physically equivalent gauge theory, which is free from any additional Wess–Zumino variables, by employing symplectic gauge invariant formalism. In addition, we analyze the reformulated gauge invariant theory within the framework of BRST formalism to establish the off-shell nilpotent and absolutely anti-commuting (anti-)BRST symmetries. Finally, we construct the conserved (anti-)BRST charges which satisfy the physicality criteria and turn out to be the generators of corresponding symmetries.