On the axial anomaly at finite temperature in the Schwinger model

The axial anomaly in 2 dimensional QED at finite temperature is carefully investigated in the real time formalism in the limit of vanishing fermion mass. We follow the dispersion approach of Dolgov and Zakharov. The temperature independence of the anomaly is recovered.     

Chiral fermions in stochastic quantization

The simultaneous conservation of chiral and gauge currents in the framework of stochastic quantization is discussed. By means of the stochastic regularization procedure we explicitly compute the axial anomaly for fermions with mass m≠0 and the fictitious time t→∞. However, when m≡0, an ambiguity appears: it turns out that the two limits (m→0, t→∞) do not commute. In this case non-perturbative methods show that the difference between left-handed and right-handed zero modes cancels; therefore no anomaly is present and stochastic regularization is unable to describe chiral theories at finite fictitious time. It is in any case unclear how stochastic quantization can describe a massless fermion at finite t.     

Magnetization and dynamically induced finite densities in three-dimensional Chern-Simons QED

In (2 + 1)-dimensional QED with a Chem-Simons term, we show that spontaneous magnetization occurs in the context of finite density vacua, which are the lowest Landau levels fully or half occupied by fermions. Charge condensation is shown to appear so as to complement the fermion anti-fermion condensate, which breaks the flavor U(2N) symmetry and causes fermion mass generation. The solutions to the Schwinger-Dyson gap equation show that the fermion self-energy contributes to the induction of a finite fermion density and/or fermion mass. The magnetization can be supported by charge condensation for theories with the Chem-Simons coefficient κ = Ne²2gp, and κ = Ne²/4π, under the Gauss law constraint. For κ = Ne²/4π, both the magnetic field and the fermion mass are simultaneously generated in the half-filled ground state, which breaks the U(2N) symmetry as well as the Lorentz symmetry.     

Nontopological finite temperature induced fermion number

We show that while the zero temperature induced fermion number in a chiral sigma model background depends only on the asymptotic values of the chiral field, at finite temperature the induced fermion number depends also on the detailed shape of the chiral background. We resum the leading low temperature terms to all orders in the derivative expansion, producing a simple result that can be interpreted physically as the different effect of the chiral background on virtual pairs of the Dirac sea and on the real particles of the thermal plasma. By contrast, for a kink background, not of sigma model form, the finite T induced fermion number is temperature dependent but topological.     

U(1) gauge-coupled Dirac equation and massless (QED)2 on a finite element

Toward the construction of the gauge theory on a lattice without species doubling, we formulate the U(1) gauge-coupled Dirac equation on a finite element in (d + 1)-dimensional space-time. For massless (QED)₂, we derive the vector current conservation and the axial anomaly. The reproduction of the axial anomaly indicates the resolution of the doubling problem.     

Relativistic fermion in a spherically symmetric potential well of finite depth in a two-dimensional space

The problem of existence of bounded relativistic fermion states in a spherically symmetric well of finite depth in a two-dimensional space is investigated. The well depth critical for the appearance of standard states with energies E = m, 0, and –m is determined; moreover, cases with zero and nonzero fermion momenta are considered. Approximate analytical expressions for the critical depths of narrow and wide wells are derived which are in good agreement with the results of numerical calculations. Approximate energies of levels located on the boundaries of the upper and lower continuums and determined analytically are in good agreement with the results of numerical calculations.     

Backscattering of Dirac fermions in HgTe quantum wells with a finite gap

The density-dependent mobility of n-type HgTe quantum wells with inverted band ordering has been studied both experimentally and theoretically. While semiconductor heterostructures with a parabolic dispersion exhibit an increase in mobility with carrier density, high-quality HgTe quantum wells exhibit a distinct mobility maximum. We show that this mobility anomaly is due to backscattering of Dirac fermions from random fluctuations of the band gap (Dirac mass). Our findings open new avenues for the study of Dirac fermion transport with finite and random mass, which so far has been hard to access.     

Axial Anomaly and the Triality Symmetry of Octonion

With an assumption that in the Yang-Mills Lagrangian, a left-handed fermion and a right-handed fermion both expressed as the quaternion makes an octonion, and the gauge field can be treated as self-dual, we calculate the axial current and two vector currents triangle diagram of Bardeen, which yields the contribution of the axial anomaly. The octonion possesses the triality symmetry, and there are 5 symmetry operations G _ij and G _ijk (ijk = 123), in which mixing of spinors and vectors occur. G ₂₃ does not mix vectors and spinors, but mismatch of the spinor and vector fields occurs. Hence, electro magnetic (EM) wave emitted from galaxies transformed by the five transformations would not be detected by EM detectors in our galaxy, and the source would be regarded as dark matter. The axial anomaly appears as a reflection of the symmetry of the matter field and not as a reflection of the symmetry of the pure vacuum, which is consistent with recent arguments on condensates and confinement.     

A mathematical analysis of the axial anomaly

Letters in Mathematical Physics - 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...     

Dynamical supersymmetry breaking in a finite field theoretical model

We present a supersymmetric field theory in two or three space-time dimensions with an internal symmetry of the O(N) type. In the large-N limit the model is finite and supersymmetry is spontaneously broken. The fields representing the order parameters of the broken supersymmetry phase acquire dynamics through quantum corrections. In particular the Goldstone fermion is a zero-mass fermionic bound state.     

Discrete quantum gravity and anomalies

A new version of quantum gravity on discrete spaces (simplicial complexes) is proposed. A theory of gravitation interacting with Dirac field is considered. This theory is shown to be free of reparametrization anomaly. The problem of axial gauge anomaly and the associated problem of the doubling of fermion states on a lattice are discussed.     

Renormalization and asymptotic behavior in a finite quantum field theory with shadow states

In this paper we present a study of the renormalization problem in a finite quantum field theory with shadow states for a system of a physical scalar field interacting with a physical fermion field. In order to make the theory finite, two fermion shadow fields are introduced. We observe that the stability criterion of renormalization can not be satisfied simultaneously by both physical fields and shadow fields, if the finiteness of the theory is to be maintained. A physical interpretation of this result is given. Furthermore, we find that the effective complete propagators for large space-like momenta behave like free field propagators without the logarithmic factors observed in the non-abelian gauge theory.     

Fermion theories on a 2d torus with Wilson action improved by Pauli – Villars regularization

Vectorial and anomaly free chiral U(1) fermion models on a 2d finite lattice are considered. It is demonstrated both numerically and analytically that introduction of Pauli – Villars type regularization suppresses the symmetry breaking effects caused by the Wilson term.     

An explicit example of a tumbling gauge theory

We present a class of two-dimensional models with a non-abelian gauge symmetry. In one model with gauge symmetry is dynamically broken by a fermion bilinear condensate in a $\text{1}\text{n}$ expansion. We discuss the differences between a dynamical and elementary Higgs mechanism due to the presence of a non-abelian axial anomaly.     

Effective lagrangian analysis of the chiral phase transition at finite density

Introducing a finite chemical potential μ for the quark number density ψ^°ψ, we study analytically the restoration of Π^° chiral symmetry as μ is varied. In the strong coupling limit, the effective lagrangian for SU(N) gauge theories coupled to fermion fields in d dimensions is derived for all N. In the case of SU(2) we predict a second order chiral symmetry restoration phase transition, whereas for all N?3 the transition is first order. Predictions are given for the critical values of the chemical potential μ.     

More on axial anomalies of Lifshitz fermions

We show that the gauge and metric field contribution to the axial anomaly of a four‐dimensional massless Lifshitz fermion theory with anisotropy scaling exponent z is identical to the relativistic case, hereby extending the results found in arXiv:1103.5693 to arbitrary values of z. This is in accordance with the fact that the axial anomaly is an infra‐red phenomenon in disguise. We also provide some new models that realize baryon and lepton number violation in non‐relativistic theories of gravity. In all cases, the volume of space exhibits a lower bound that is fixed by the gravitational coupling parameters.     

Chiral Schwinger model with a Podolsky term at finite temperature

We study an exactly solvable two-dimensional model which mimics the basic features of the standard model. This model combines chiral coupling with an infrared behavior which resembles low energy QCD. This is done by adding a Podolsky higher-order derivative term in the gauge field to the Lagrangian of the usual chiral Schwinger model. We adopt a finite temperature regularization procedure in order to calculate the non-trivial fermionic Jacobian and obtain the photon and fermion propagators, first at zero temperature and then at finite temperature in the imaginary and real time formalisms. Both singular and non-singular cases, corresponding to the choice of the regularization parameter, are treated. In the nonsingular case there is a tachyonic mode as usual in a higher order derivative theory, however in the singular case there is no tachyonic excitation in the spectrum.     

Soliton and boundary condition induced fractional fermion number

We show that for a fermion in a bounded background potential in a finite box, eigenvalues of the total charge are independent of whether the potential is solitonic and depend only on the boundary condition: half-odd integral or integral for charge conjugation (C) invariant boundary conditions and an arbitrary fraction forC non-invariant boundary conditions. Fractional fermion numbers for infinite space Jackiw-Rebbi and Goldstone-Wilczek Hamiltonians are reproduced in finite space by using boundary conditions different from the periodic ones of Rajaraman and Bell.