Topologically massive abelian gauge theory from BFT Hamiltonian embedding of a first-order theory

We start with a new first-order gauge non-invariant formulation of massive spin-1 theory and map it to a reducible gauge theory, viz. abelian B boolea n AND F theory by the Hamiltonian embedding procedure of Batalin, Fradkin a nd Tyutin (BFT). This equivalence is shown from the equations of motion of the embedded Hamiltonian. We also demonstrate that the original gauge non-i nvariant model and the topologically massive gauge theory can both be obtai ned by a suitable choice of gauges, from the phase space partition function of the embedded Hamiltonian, proving their equivalence. A comparison of th e first-order formulation with the other known massive spin-1 theories is a lso discussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.