What's Wrong with Anomalous Chiral Gauge Theory?1 Introduction
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Thermal Evolution of the Axial Anomaly
Thermal evolution of the axial anomaly Gergely Fej}os Research Center for Nuclear Physics Osaka University The 10th APCTP-BLTP/JINR-RCNP-RIKEN Joint Workshop on Nuclear and Hadronic Physics 18th August, 2016 G. Fejos & A. Hosaka, arXiv: 1604.05982 Gergely Fej}os Thermal evolution of the axial anomaly Outline aaa Motivation Functional renormalization group Chiral (linear) sigma model and axial anomaly Extension with nucleons Summary Gergely Fej}os Thermal evolution of the axial anomaly Motivation Gergely Fej}os Thermal evolution of the axial anomaly Chiral symmetry is spontaneuously broken in the ground state: < ¯ > = < ¯R L > + < ¯L R > 6= 0 SSB pattern: SUL(Nf ) × SUR (Nf ) −! SUV (Nf ) Anomaly: UA(1) is broken by instantons Details of chiral symmetry restoration? Critical temperature? Axial anomaly? Is it recovered at the critical point? Motivation QCD Lagrangian with quarks and gluons: 1 L = − G a G µνa + ¯ (iγ Dµ − m) 4 µν i µ ij j Approximate chiral symmetry for Nf = 2; 3 flavors: iT aθa iT aθa L ! e L L; R ! e R R [vector: θL + θR , axialvector: θL − θR ] Gergely Fej}os Thermal evolution of the axial anomaly Details of chiral symmetry restoration? Critical temperature? Axial anomaly? Is it recovered at the critical point? Motivation QCD Lagrangian with quarks and gluons: 1 L = − G a G µνa + ¯ (iγ Dµ − m) 4 µν i µ ij j Approximate chiral symmetry for Nf = 2; 3 flavors: iT aθa iT aθa L ! e L L; R ! e R R [vector: θL + θR , axialvector: θL − θR ] Chiral symmetry is spontaneuously broken in the ground state: < ¯ > = < ¯R L > + < ¯L R -
On the Trace Anomaly of a Weyl Fermion in a Gauge Background
On the trace anomaly of a Weyl fermion in a gauge background Fiorenzo Bastianelli,a;b;c Matteo Broccoli,a;c aDipartimento di Fisica ed Astronomia, Universit`adi Bologna, via Irnerio 46, I-40126 Bologna, Italy bINFN, Sezione di Bologna, via Irnerio 46, I-40126 Bologna, Italy cMax-Planck-Institut f¨ur Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut) Am M¨uhlenberg 1, D-14476 Golm, Germany E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Abstract: We study the trace anomaly of a Weyl fermion in an abelian gauge background. Although the presence of the chiral anomaly implies a breakdown of gauge invariance, we find that the trace anomaly can be cast in a gauge invariant form. In particular, we find that it does not contain any odd-parity contribution proportional to the Chern-Pontryagin density, which would be allowed by the con- sistency conditions. We perform our calculations using Pauli-Villars regularization and heat kernel methods. The issue is analogous to the one recently discussed in the literature about the trace anomaly of a Weyl fermion in curved backgrounds. Keywords: Anomalies in Field and String Theories, Conformal Field Theory arXiv:1808.03489v2 [hep-th] 7 May 2019 Contents 1 Introduction1 2 Actions and symmetries3 2.1 The Weyl fermion3 2.1.1 Mass terms5 2.2 The Dirac fermion8 2.2.1 Mass terms9 3 Regulators and consistent anomalies 10 4 Anomalies 13 4.1 Chiral and trace anomalies of a Weyl fermion 13 4.1.1 PV regularization with Majorana mass 14 4.1.2 PV regularization with Dirac mass 15 4.2 Chiral and trace anomalies of a Dirac fermion 16 4.2.1 PV regularization with Dirac mass 16 4.2.2 PV regularization with Majorana mass 17 5 Conclusions 18 A Conventions 19 B The heat kernel 21 C Sample calculations 22 1 Introduction In this paper we study the trace anomaly of a chiral fermion coupled to an abelian gauge field in four dimensions. -
Chiral Anomaly Without Relativity Arxiv:1511.03621V1 [Physics.Pop-Ph]
Chiral anomaly without relativity A.A. Burkov Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada, and ITMO University, Saint Petersburg 197101, Russia Perspective on J. Xiong et al., Science 350, 413 (2015). The Dirac equation, which describes relativistic fermions, has a mathematically inevitable, but puzzling feature: negative energy solutions. The physical reality of these solutions is unques- tionable, as one of their direct consequences, the existence of antimatter, is confirmed by ex- periment. It is their interpretation that has always been somewhat controversial. Dirac’s own idea was to view the vacuum as a state in which all the negative energy levels are physically filled by fermions, which is now known as the Dirac sea. This idea seems to directly contradict a common-sense view of the vacuum as a state in which matter is absent and is thus generally disliked among high-energy physicists, who prefer to regard the Dirac sea as not much more than a useful metaphor. On the other hand, the Dirac sea is a very natural concept from the point of view of a condensed matter physicist, since there is a direct and simple analogy: filled valence bands of an insulating crystal. There exists, however, a phenomenon within the con- arXiv:1511.03621v1 [physics.pop-ph] 26 Oct 2015 text of the relativistic quantum field theory itself, whose satisfactory understanding seems to be hard to achieve without assigning physical reality to the Dirac sea. This phenomenon is the chiral anomaly, a quantum-mechanical violation of chiral symmetry, which was first observed experimentally in the particle physics setting as a decay of a neutral pion into two photons. -
Chiral Gauge Theories Revisited
CERN-TH/2001-031 Chiral gauge theories revisited Lectures given at the International School of Subnuclear Physics Erice, 27 August { 5 September 2000 Martin L¨uscher ∗ CERN, Theory Division CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland Contents 1. Introduction 2. Chiral gauge theories & the gauge anomaly 3. The regularization problem 4. Weyl fermions from 4+1 dimensions 5. The Ginsparg–Wilson relation 6. Gauge-invariant lattice regularization of anomaly-free theories 1. Introduction A characteristic feature of the electroweak interactions is that the left- and right- handed components of the fermion fields do not couple to the gauge fields in the same way. The term chiral gauge theory is reserved for field theories of this type, while all other gauge theories (such as QCD) are referred to as vector-like, since the gauge fields only couple to vector currents in this case. At first sight the difference appears to be mathematically insignificant, but it turns out that in many respects chiral ∗ On leave from Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, D-22603 Hamburg, Germany 1 νµ ν e µ W W γ e Fig. 1. Feynman diagram contributing to the muon decay at two-loop order of the electroweak interactions. The triangular subdiagram in this example is potentially anomalous and must be treated with care to ensure that gauge invariance is preserved. gauge theories are much more complicated. Their definition beyond the classical level, for example, is already highly non-trivial and it is in general extremely difficult to obtain any solid information about their non-perturbative properties. 1.1 Anomalies Most of the peculiarities in chiral gauge theories are related to the fact that the gauge symmetry tends to be violated by quantum effects. -
Effective Lagrangian for Axial Anomaly and Its Applications in Dirac And
www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Efective lagrangian for axial anomaly and its applications in Dirac and Weyl semimetals Received: 25 April 2018 Chih-Yu Chen, C. D. Hu & Yeu-Chung Lin Accepted: 9 July 2018 A gauge invariant efective lagrangian for the fermion axial anomaly is constructed. The dynamical Published: xx xx xxxx degree of freedom for fermion feld is preserved. Using the anomaly lagrangian, the scattering cross section of pair production γγ → e−e+ in Dirac or Weyl semimetal is computed. The result is compared with the corresponding result from Dirac lagrangian. It is found that anomaly lagrangain and Dirac lagrangian exhibit the same E B pattern, therefore the E B signature may not serve a good indicator of the existence of axial anomaly. Because anomaly generates excessive right-handed electrons and positrons, pair production can give rise to spin current by applying gate voltage and charge current with depositing spin flters. These experiments are able to discern genuine anomaly phenomena. Axial anomaly1,2, sometimes referred to as chiral anomaly in proper context, arises from the non-invariance of fermion measure under axial γ5 transformation3, it is a generic property of quantum fermion feld theory, massive or massless. Te realization of axial anomaly in condensed matter is frst explored by Nielsen and Ninomiya4. It is argued that in the presence of external parallel electric and magnetic felds, there is net production of chiral charge and electrons move from lef-handed (LH) Weyl cone to right-handed (RH) Weyl cone, the induced anomaly current causes magneto-conductivity prominent. Aji5 investigated pyrochlore iridates under magnetic feld. -
Nonperturbative Definition of the Standard Models
PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH 2, 023356 (2020) Nonperturbative definition of the standard models Juven Wang 1,2,* and Xiao-Gang Wen3 1School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA 2Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA 3Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA (Received 14 June 2019; accepted 21 May 2020; published 17 June 2020) The standard models contain chiral fermions coupled to gauge theories. It has been a longstanding problem to give such gauged chiral fermion theories a quantum nonperturbative definition. By classification of quantum anomalies (including perturbative local anomalies and nonperturbative global anomalies) and symmetric interacting invertible topological orders via a mathematical cobordism theorem for differentiable and triangulable manifolds, and by the existence of a symmetric gapped boundary (designed for the mirror sector) on the trivial symmetric invertible topological orders, we propose that Spin(10) chiral fermion theories with Weyl fermions in 16-dimensional spinor representations can be defined on a 3 + 1D lattice without fermion doubling, and subsequently dynamically gauged to be a Spin(10) chiral gauge theory. As a result, the standard models from the 16n-chiral fermion SO(10) grand unification can be defined nonperturbatively via a 3 + 1D local lattice model of bosons or qubits. Furthermore, we propose that standard models from the 15n-chiral fermion -
U(1) Gauge Extensions of the Standard Model
U(1) Gauge Extensions of the Standard Model Ernest Ma Physics and Astronomy Department University of California Riverside, CA 92521, USA U(1) Gauge Extensions of the Standard Model (int08) back to start 1 Contents • Anomaly Freedom of the Standard Model • B − L • Le − Lµ and B − 3Lτ • U(1)Σ • Supersymmetric U(1)X • Some Remarks U(1) Gauge Extensions of the Standard Model (int08) back to start 2 Anomaly Freedom of the Standard Model Gauge Group: SU(3)C × SU((2)L × U(1)Y . Consider the fermion multiplets: (u, d)L ∼ (3, 2, n1), uR ∼ (3, 1, n2), dR ∼ (3, 1, n3), (ν, e)L ∼ (1, 2, n4), eR ∼ (1, 1, n5). Bouchiat/Iliopolous/Meyer(1972): The SM with n1 = 1/6, n2 = 2/3, n3 = −1/3, n4 = −1/2, n5 = −1, is free of axial-vector anomalies, i.e. 2 [SU(3)] U(1)Y : 2n1 − n2 − n3 = 0. 2 [SU(2)] U(1)Y : 3n1 + n4 = 0. 3 3 3 3 3 3 [U(1)Y ] : 6n1 − 3n2 − 3n3 + 2n4 − n5 = 0. U(1) Gauge Extensions of the Standard Model (int08) back to start 3 It is also free of the mixed gravitational-gauge anomaly, U(1)Y : 6n1 − 3n2 − 3n3 + 2n4 − n5 = 0. Geng/Marshak(1989), Minahan/Ramond/Warner(1990) : Above 4 equations ⇒ n1(4n1 − n2)(2n1 + n2) = 0. n2 = 4n1 ⇒ SM; n2 = −2n1 ⇒ SM (uR ↔ dR); n1 = 0 ⇒ n4 = n5 = n2 + n3 = 0. Here eR ∼ (1, 1, 0) may be dropped. (u, d)L, (ν, e)L have charges (1/2, −1/2) and (uR, dR) have charges (n2, −n2). -
Π0 Decay Precision-Tests the Chiral Anomaly Harvey B
NUCLEAR PHYSICS p0 decay precision-tests the chiral anomaly More precise neutral pion lifetime measurements probe quantum symmetry breaking By Harvey B. Meyer point, it was assumed that a symmetry of the errors in quadrature, this amounts to a classical Lagrangian would protect p0 from tension of 1.8 standard deviations versus ost subatomic particles are decaying in the limit of massless up and the combined result of the PrimEx-I and strongly interacting composites down quarks and lead to a longer lifetime. -II experiments, 8.34 (60.13) × 10−17 s. Al- called hadrons. Most hadrons are However, it turns out to be impossible to reg- though this difference could be a statisti- unstable and decay on extremely ularize quantum chromodynamics without cal fluctuation, it provides motivation to short time scales (10−22 s) to lighter breaking that symmetry. Therefore, the latter revisit the theory prediction. The gp pp hadrons. The electrically neutral is not respected by the quantum fluctuations reaction also has a sharp low-energy pre- Mpion, p0, is the lightest hadron and decays of the quantum chromodynamics fields and diction based on the chiral anomaly (6, 7) on a time scale of 10−16 s in 98.8% of cases does not protect p0 from decaying. and is being investigated by the COMPASS into two photons, gg, through the electro- The quantum origin of the symmetry experiment (8). magnetic interaction. Historically, under- breaking leads to an exact prediction for the The gg decay width of p0 has recently standing this time scale presented a major strength of p0 coupling to gg and hence the been evaluated from first principles using Downloaded from challenge to theoreticians. -
Anomaly Constraint on Massless QCD and the Role of Skyrmions in Chiral Symmetry Breaking
Prepared for submission to JHEP Anomaly constraint on massless QCD and the role of Skyrmions in chiral symmetry breaking Yuya Tanizaki RIKEN BNL Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973 USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: We discuss consequences of the ’t Hooft anomaly matching condition for Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) with massless fundamental quarks. We derive the new discrete ’t Hooft anomaly of massless QCD for generic numbers of color Nc and flavor Nf , and an exotic chiral-symmetry broken phase without quark-bilinear condensate is ruled out from possible QCD vacua. We show that the U(1)B baryon number symmetry is anomalously broken when the (Z2Nf )A discrete axial symmetry and the flavor symmetry are gauged. In the ordinary chiral symmetry breaking, the Skyrmion current turns out to reproduce this ’t Hooft anomaly of massless QCD. In the exotic chiral symmetry break- ing, however, the anomalous breaking of U(1)B does not take the correct form, and it is inconsistent with anomaly matching. This no-go theorem is based only on symmetries and anomalies, and thus has a wider range of applicability to the QCD phase diagram than the previous one obtained by QCD inequalities. Lastly, as another application, we check that duality of N = 1 supersymmetric QCD with Nf ≥ Nc + 1 satisfies the new anomaly matching. arXiv:1807.07666v3 [hep-th] 23 Aug 2018 Contents 1 Introduction1 2 Symmetry of massless QCD4 2.1 Symmetry group of massless Nf -flavor QCD5 2.2 Other equivalent expressions of the flavor symmetry6 2.3 Background -
Green-Schwarz Anomaly Cancellation
Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation Paolo Di Vecchia Niels Bohr Instituttet, Copenhagen and Nordita, Stockholm Collège de France, 05.03.10 Paolo Di Vecchia (NBI+NO) GS anomaly cancellation Collège de France, 05.03.10 1 / 30 Plan of the talk 1 Introduction 2 A quick look at the abelian axial anomaly 3 Few words on forms 4 Anomaly cancellation in type IIB superstring theory 5 Anomaly cancellation in type I superstring 6 Conclusions Paolo Di Vecchia (NBI+NO) GS anomaly cancellation Collège de France, 05.03.10 2 / 30 Introduction I The theory of general relativity for gravity was formulated by Einstein in 1915. I It is a four-dimensional theory that extends the theory of special relativity. I While special relativity is invariant under the transformations of the Lorentz group, general relativity is invariant under an arbitrary change of coordinates. I In the twenties it was proposed by Theodor Kaluza and Oskar Klein to unify electromagnetism with gravity by starting from general relativity in a five-dimensional space-time and compactify the extra-dimension on a small circle. I In this way one obtains general relativity in four dimensions, a vector gauge field satisfying the Maxwell equations and a scalar. I This idea of extra dimensions was not pursued in the years after. I In the sixties and seventies, when I started to work in the physics of the elementary particles, everybody was strictly working in four dimensions. Paolo Di Vecchia (NBI+NO) GS anomaly cancellation Collège de France, 05.03.10 3 / 30 I Also the dual resonance model, being a model for hadrons, was obviously formulated in four dimensions. -
Symmetric Point Flavour Singlet Axial Vector Current Renormalization At
LTH 1228 Symmetric point flavour singlet axial vector current renormalization at two loops J.A. Gracey, Theoretical Physics Division, Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool, L69 3BX, United Kingdom. Abstract. We calculate the two loop correction to the quark 2-point function with the non-zero momentum insertion of the flavour singlet axial vector current at the fully symmetric subtraction point for massless quarks in the modified minimal subtraction (MS) scheme. The Larin method is used to handle γ5 within dimensional regularization at this loop order ensuring that the effect of the chiral anomaly is properly included within the construction. arXiv:2001.11282v2 [hep-ph] 21 Jul 2020 1 1 Introduction. One of the more curious experimental results over a generation ago was that of the EMC collabo- ration, [1]. They measured the origin of the proton spin and discovered that against expectations it was not due in a major part to the valence quarks. As the proton is a bound state of three quarks it was widely assumed that the combination of their quark spins would be the source 1 of the overall spin- 2 of the proton. Instead the experiment observed that the gluons binding the quarks together give a sizeable contribution. This was surprising due to the fact that in some sense the gluons are sea partons. While the original experiment was subsequently refined and improved to confirm the original observation, [2, 3, 4, 5], a clear theoretical understand- ing was sought to explain the phenomenon. As such a venture requires the use of the strong sector of the Standard Model described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), tools had to be developed and refined to tackle the problem. -
Anomaly: a New Mechanism to Generate Massless Bosons
S S symmetry Review Axial UA(1) Anomaly: A New Mechanism to Generate Massless Bosons Vicente Azcoiti Departamento de Física Teórica, Facultad de Ciencias, and Centro de Astropartículas y Física de Altas Energías (CAPA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna 9, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain; [email protected] Abstract: Prior to the establishment of QCD as the correct theory describing hadronic physics, it was realized that the essential ingredients of the hadronic world at low energies are chiral symmetry and its spontaneous breaking. Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a non-perturbative phenomenon, and, thanks to massive QCD simulations on the lattice, we have at present a good understanding of the vacuum realization of the non-abelian chiral symmetry as a function of the physical temperature. As far as the UA(1) anomaly is concerned, and especially in the high temperature phase, the current situation is however far from satisfactory. The first part of this article is devoted to reviewing the present status of lattice calculations, in the high temperature phase of QCD, of quantities directly related to the UA(1) axial anomaly. In the second part, some recently suggested interesting physical implications of the UA(1) anomaly in systems where the non-abelian axial symmetry is fulfilled in the vacuum are analyzed. More precisely it is argued that, if the UA(1) symmetry remains effectively broken, the topological properties of the theory can be the basis of a mechanism, other than Goldstone’s theorem, to generate a rich spectrum of massless bosons at the chiral limit. Keywords: chiral transition; lattice QCD; U(1) anomaly; topology; massless bosons Citation: Azcoiti, V.