COHOMOLOGY AND RENORMALIZATION OF BFYM THEORY IN 3 DIMENSIONS

The first-order formalism for the 3D Yang-Mills theory is considered a nd two different formulations are introduced, in which the gauge theor y appears to be a deformation of the topological BF theory. We perform the quantization and the algebraic analysis of the renormalization of both the models, which are found to be anomaly free, We discuss also their stability against radiative corrections, giving the full structu re of possible counterterms, requiring an involved matricial renormali zation of fields and sources. Both models are then proved to be equiva lent to the Yang-Mills theory at the renormalized level. (C) 1997 Publ ished by Elsevier Science B.V.