A homotopy Lie-Rinehart resolution and classical BRST cohomology

Abstract

We use an interlaced inductive procedure reminiscent of the integration process from traditional deformation theory to construct a homotopy Lie-Rinehart resolution for the Lie-Rinehart pair which arises as an exercise in Poisson reduction in the context of the BFV construction of classical BRST cohomology. We show that the associated homotopy Rinehart algebra and the BRST algebra are isomorphic as graded commutative algebras. In the irreducible case, the two have the same cohomology.