On the role of the subsidiary fields in the momentum and angular momentum in covariantly quantized QED and QCD

Abstract: The covariant quantization of QED and QCD requires the introduction of subsidiary gauge-fixing and ghost fields and it is crucial to understand the role of these in the energy-momentum tensor, and in the momentum and angular momentum operators. These issues were studied in \cite{Leader:2011za}, and key results from this study were utilized in the major review of angular momentum in \cite{Leader:2013jra}. Damski \cite{Damski:2021feu} has rightly criticized as incorrect the derivation of certain equations in \cite{Leader:2011za}. We show, however, that the key results of \cite{Leader:2011za} which are utilized in \cite{Leader:2013jra} are unaffected by Damski's criticism.