Off-shell double copy theories in BV

Authors: Maor Ben-Shahar, Francesco Bonechi, Maxim Zabzine

Pre-print: UUITP–18/25

Abstract: We present a construction of the double copy for gauge theories that exhibit off-shell color-kinematics duality within the Batalin-Vilkovitsky (BV) formalism. As illustrative examples, we consider the double copies of Chern-Simons theory, four-dimensional BF theory, and two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory, and we discuss possible gravity interpretations for these cases. We formalize the construction and demonstrate that Kodaira-Spencer gravity, Kähler gravity, and their generalizations, fit naturally within this framework. In particular, Kodaira-Spencer gravity emerges as a gauge theory describing deformations of generalized complex structures, while the double copy of Chern-Simons theory captures the deformation of the Courant bracket.