A mathematical analysis of the axial anomaly

DOI10.1007/S11005-018-1142-4MaRDI QIDQ2000934zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Eugene Rabinovich

Publication date 1 July 2019

Published in Letters in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.11301

zbMATH Keywords

perturbative anomaliesBatlin-Vilkovisky formalismcohomological methods in quantum field theorymassless free fermion

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Heat kernel (35K08) Perturbative methods of renormalization applied to problems in quantum field theory (81T15) Feynman diagrams (81T18) Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Anomalies in quantum field theory (81T50) Spectral sequences, hypercohomology (18G40)

Abstract: As is well known to physicists, the axial anomaly of the massless free fermion in Euclidean signature is given by the index of the corresponding Dirac operator. We use the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formalism and the methods of equivariant quantization of Costello and Gwilliam to produce a new, mathematical derivation of this result. Using these methods, we formalize two conventional interpretations of the axial anomaly, the first as a violation of current conservation at the quantum level and the second as the obstruction to the existence of a well-defined fermionic partition function. Moreover, in the formalism of Costello and Gwilliam, anomalies are measured by cohomology classes in a certain obstruction-deformation complex. Our main result shows that---in the case of the axial symmetry---the relevant complex is quasi-isomorphic to the complex of de Rham forms of the spacetime manifold and that the anomaly corresponds to a top-degree cohomology class which is trivial if and only if the index of the corresponding Dirac operator is zero.

Recommendations

• A proof of the axial anomaly
• Mathematical construction of chiral anomaly
• Consistent, covariant and multiplicative anomalies.
• A rigorous construction of the chiral anomaly on a spin manifold
• Axial and Gauge Anomalies in the BV Formalism

Cites work

• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5866383 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2046509 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2204842 (Why is no real title available?)
• A rigorous geometric derivation of the chiral anomaly in curved backgrounds
• AST419 - Chiral Differential Operators via Batalin-Vilkovisky Quantization
• Anomalies and invertible field theories
• Determinants, torsion, and strings
• Factorization algebras in quantum field theory. Volume 1
• The analysis of elliptic families. I: Metrics and connections on determinant bundles
• The analysis of elliptic families. II: Dirac operators, êta invariants, and the holonomy theorem

Cited in

(4)

• A proof of the axial anomaly
• AXIAL ANOMALY: THE MODERN STATUS
• General covariance from the viewpoint of stacks
• The Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism and the determinant line bundle

This page was built for publication: A mathematical analysis of the axial anomaly

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2000934)