Determination of covariant Schwinger terms in anomalous gauge theories

A functional integral method is used to determine equal time commutators between the covariant currents and the covariant Gauss-law operators in theories which are affected by an anomaly. By using a differential geometrical setup we show how the derivation of consistent- and covariant Schwinger terms can be understood on an equal footing. We find a modified consistency condition for the covariant anomaly. As a by-product the Bardeen-Zumino functional, which relates consistent and covariant anomalies, can be interpreted as connection on a certain line bundle over the space of all gauge potentials. Finally the convariant commutator anomalies are calculated for the two- and four dimensional case.     

Anomalies and odd dimensions

The parity-violating effective action for theories of fermions coupled to external gauge and gravitational fields in odd dimensions is computed exactly. This action is then used to compute gauge and gravitational anomalies in even dimensions. This derivation of the anomalies elucidates the relation of covariant to consistent anomalies as well as the relation between the Abelian anomaly and the non-Abelian anomaly in two lower dimensions.     

Covariant Anomalies and Functional Determinants

We analize the algebraic structure of consistent and covariant anomalies in gauge and gravitational theories: using a complex extension of the Lie algebra it is possible to describe them in a unified way. Then we study their representations by means of functional determinants, showing how the algebraic solution determines the relevant operators for the definition of the effective action. Particular attention is devoted to the Lorentz anomaly: we obtain by functional methods the covariant anomaly for the spin-current and for the energy-momentum tensor in presence of a curved background. With regard to the consistent sector we are able to give a general functional solution only for d = 2: using the characterization derived from the extended algebra, we find a continuous family of operators whose determinant describes the effective action of chiral spinors in curved space. We compute this action and we generalize the result in presence of a U(1) gauge connection.     

Direct construction of the effective action of chiral gauge fermions in the anomalous sector

The anomaly implies an obstruction to a fully chiral covariant calculation of the effective action in the abnormal-parity sector of chiral theories. The standard approach then is to reconstruct the anomalous effective action from its covariant current. In this work, we use a recently introduced formulation which allows one to directly construct the non-trivial chiral invariant part of the effective action within a fully covariant formalism. To this end we develop an appropriate version of Chan’s approach to carry out the calculation within the derivative expansion. The result to four derivatives, i.e., to leading order in two and four dimensions and next-to-leading order in two dimensions, is explicitly worked out. Fairly compact expressions are found for these terms.     

Consistent,Covariant and Multiplicative Anomalies

It is shown that the multiplicative anomaly in the vector-axial-vector model, which apparently has nothing to do with the breaking of classical current symmetries, nevertheless is strictly related to the well known consistent and covariant anomalies.     

Phase factors,point-splitting regularisation and chiral anomalies

A method is proposed to construct the path-independent form of phase factors pertaining to non-abelian gauge theories. It is found that the original form of the phase factor, as envisaged by Schwinger, is reproduced for a straight path. As an illustration of its use this work is applied, within the framework of point-splitting regularisation, to obtain the familiar axial anomaly in a pure vector gauge theory. Subtleties associated with the treatment of the vector gauge current are also discussed. Finally, the scheme of computations is employed to derive the covariant and consistent anomalies in a non-abelian chiral gauge theory in arbitrary even dimensions.     

Gravitational anomalies

The effective action for fermions moving in external gravitational and gauge fields is analyzed in terms of the corresponding external field propagator. The central object in our approach is the covariant energy-momentum tensor which is extracted from the regular part of the propagator at short distances. It is shown that the Lorentz anomaly, the conformal anomaly and the gauge anomaly can be expressed in terms of the local polynomials which determine the singular part of the propagator. (There are no coordinate anomalies.) Except for the conformal anomaly, for which we give explicit representations only ind<=4, we consider an arbitrary number of dimensions.     

Hawking Radiation from NUT Kerr Newman Kusuya Black Hole via Effective Action and Covariant Anomalies

Using the theory of the anomalous (chiral) effective action and covariant anomalies method, the Hawking radiation from NUT-Kerr-Newman-Kusuya black hole is researched. In this paper, the electric charge parameter and magnetic monopole parameter are rewritten as equivalent parameter. In addition, we simplify the metric as 1+1 dimensional effective metric. Finally, with the method of anomalous effective action and covariant anomalies respectively, we calculate the chiral covariant current and covariant energy-momentum tensor.     

Effective action in a general chiral model: Next to leading order derivative expansion in the worldline method

We present a formalism to determine the imaginary part of a general chiral model in the derivative expansion. Our formalism is based on the worldline path integral for the covariant current that can be given in an explicit chiral and gauge covariant form. The effective action is then obtained by integrating the covariant current, taking account of the anomaly.     

Hamiltonian Anomalies from Extended Field Theories

We develop a proposal by Freed to see anomalous field theories as relative field theories, namely field theories taking value in a field theory in one dimension higher, the anomaly field theory. We show that when the anomaly field theory is extended down to codimension 2, familiar facts about Hamiltonian anomalies can be naturally recovered, such as the fact that the anomalous symmetry group admits only a projective representation on the Hilbert space, or that the latter is really an abelian bundle gerbe over the moduli space. We include in the discussion the case of non-invertible anomaly field theories, which is relevant to six-dimensional (2, 0) superconformal theories. In this case, we show that the Hamiltonian anomaly is characterized by a degree 2 non-abelian group cohomology class, associated to the non-abelian gerbe playing the role of the state space of the anomalous theory. We construct Dai-Freed theories, governing the anomalies of chiral fermionic theories, and Wess-Zumino theories, governing the anomalies of Wess-Zumino terms and self-dual field theories, as extended field theories down to codimension 2.     

Anomalies,ambiguities and superstrings

It is shown that anomalies only change trivially if a covariant term is added to the gauge connection. As a result, for the superstring, the anomalies can be cancelled if the anti-symmetric tensor field strength H is modified by the Chern-Simons form of any spin-connection, possibly with torsion. The low-energy effective field theory is, then, not uniquely determined by requiring anomaly cancellation and supersymmetry. Implications for string compactifications are considered.     

The triangle anomaly in the light-cone gauge

It is shown that the triangle anomaly can be evaluated in the light-cone gauge and that the result obtained is consistent with the usual covariant one. We use two different procedures: (i) Eliminating the nonphysical fields from the covariant anomalous Ward identity. (ii) Carrying out a chiral transformation on the light-cone Lagrangian. The use of both dimensional and Pauli-Villars regularisations are discussed.     

Covariant anomaly and Hawking radiation from the modified black hole in the rainbow gravity theory

Recently, Banerjee and Kulkarni (R. Banerjee, S. Kulkarni, arXiv: 0707. 2449 [hep-th]) suggested that it is conceptually clean and economical to use only the covariant anomaly to derive Hawking radiation from a black hole. Based upon this simplified formalism, we apply the covariant anomaly cancellation method to investigate Hawking radiation from a modified Schwarzschild black hole in the theory of rainbow gravity. Hawking temperature of the gravity’s rainbow black hole is derived from the energy-momentum flux by requiring it to cancel the covariant gravitational anomaly at the horizon. We stress that this temperature is exactly the same as that calculated by the method of cancelling the consistent anomaly.     

Quantum anomaly at horizon and Hawking radiation from higher dimensional Reissner–Nordström–de Sitter black hole

Based on the anomaly cancellation method, initiated by Robinson and Wilczek, we investigate Hawking radiation from the event horizon and cosmological horizon of the higher dimensional Reissner–Nordström–de Sitter black hole via covariant gauge and gravitational anomalies. Unlike in black hole space-time, to describe the observable physics, the effective field theory here is constructed between the event horizon and cosmological horizon. Our result shows that to restore the underlying gauge covariance and diffeomorphism covariance at the quantum level, the covariant compensating fluxes of gauge and energy–momentum tensor, which are shown to equal to those of Hawking radiation, should be radiated from the event horizon and absorbed from the cosmological horizon, respectively.     

Large-mass expansions or one-loop effective actions and fermion currents

The large-mass expansion of the functional determinants for second-order elliptic operators and general Dirac operators is calculated for four-dimensional flat euclidean space using zeta function regularisation and heat kernel methods. The results are applicable to one-loop boson and fermion effective actions. In addition the expansions of covariantly regularised fermion currents are derived. It is also possible for the corresponding Pauli-Villars regularised forms to be then simply obtained and the modified currents then reproduce the usual Bardeen anomaly. Although covariant methods are used it is shown how to derive the expansion for the phase of the fermion determinant, which is non-covariant and produces the anomaly, in terms of a representation as a five-dimensional integral which is related to the spectral asymmetry for a suitable spinor hamiltonian. This relation is essentially exact and is demonstrated by considering the variation of the phase with respect to the Dirac operator.     

Relation between anomaly in type-I superstring and anomaly in its effective theory

We explicitly calculate the hexagon and heptagon (covariant) gauge anomaly including the precise numerical coefficients in type-I open superstring. The calculation is performed by using the Pauli-Villars regularization on the basis of the stringy Ward identity, which is an assumption weaker than the cancelled propagator argument. We show that the anomalies in the effective theory are realized as the zero slope limit (α^′→0) of the string anomalies in a very non-trivial way in the present calculational scheme. This non-trivial realization in higher point (n≧8) anomalies is also discussed.     

Higher-spin gauge and trace anomalies in two-dimensional backgrounds

Two-dimensional quantum fields in electric and gravitational backgrounds can be described by conformal field theories, and hence all the physical (covariant) quantities can be written in terms of the corresponding holomorphic quantities. In this paper, we first derive relations between covariant and holomorphic forms of higher-spin currents in these backgrounds, and then, by using these relations, obtain higher-spin generalizations of the trace and gauge (or gravitational) anomalies up to spin 4. These results are applied to derive higher-moments of Hawking fluxes in black holes in a separate paper [S. Iso, T. Morita, H. Umetsu, Hawking radiation via higher-spin gauge anomalies, arXiv: 0710.0456 [hep-th]].     

Consistent and covariant anomalies in gauge and gravitational theories

The gauge structure of anomalies and the related currents is analyzed in detail. We construct the covariant forms for both the currents and the anomalies for general gauge theories in even-dimensional space-time. The results are then extended to determine the structure of gravitational anomalies. These can always be interpreted as anomalies for local Lorentz transformations.