Chiral anomalies and constraints on the gauge group in higher-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories

Chiral anomalies for gauge theories in any even dimension are computed and the results applied to supersymmetric theories in D = 6, 8 and 10. For D = 8 there is an anomalous chiral U(1) invariance, just as in D = 4, except for certain special groups. For D = 6 and D = 10 there is no anomalous chiral U(1) symmetry, but the gauge current is anomalous except for certain “anomaly-free” groups. For D = 6 the group is thereby constrained to be one of {SU(2), SU(3), exceptional}, while for D = 10 it is constrained to be one of {SU(n) n ≤ 5, USp(4), E₈}.