I review some aspects of the interplay between anomalies and chiral symmetry. The quantum anomaly that breaks the U(1) axial symmetry of massless QCD leaves behind a flavor-singlet discrete chiral invariance. When the mass is turned on this residual symmetry has a close connection with the strong CP violating parameter theta. One result is that a first order transition is usually expected when the strong CP violating angle passes through pi. This symmetry can be understood either in terms of effective chiral Lagrangians or in terms of the underlying quark fields.
A recent proposal by Kaplan for a chiral gauge theory on the lattice is tested with background gauge fields. The spectrum of the finite lattice Hamiltonian is calculated and the existence of a chiral fermion is demonstrated. Lattice doublers are found to decouple. The flavor anomalies, which are in agreement with the continuum anomaly relation, are obeserved on a finite lattice. Non-trivial anomaly cancellation is observed in a chiral gauge current.
The quantum anomaly that breaks the U(1) axial symmetry of massless multi-flavored QCD leaves behind a discrete flavor-singlet chiral invariance. With massive quarks, this residual symmetry has a close connection with the strong CP-violating parameter theta. One result is that if the lightest quarks are degenerate, then a first order transition will occur when theta passes through pi. The resulting framework helps clarify when the rooting prescription for extrapolating in the number of flavors is valid.
Higher order effects of the two-dimensional non-Abelian gauge theories, in which the vector-meson mass is generated by chiral anomalies, will be studied. The $β$ function and the topological nature of the non-linear $σ$ model in the action and unitarity of the theory will be discussed.
Anomalous superconformal Ward identities and commutator algebra in N = 1 super-Yang-Mills theory give rise to constraints between the QCD special conformal anomalies of conformal composite operators. We evaluate the superconformal anomalies that appear in the product of renormalized conformal operators and the trace anomaly in the supersymmetric spinor current and check the constraints at one-loop order. In this way we prove the universality of QCD conformal anomalies, which define the non-diagonal part of the anomalous dimension matrix responsible for scaling violations of exclusive QCD ampli…
We consider the flavour-changing operators associated with the strong axial and trace anomalies. Their short-distance generation through penguin-like diagrams is obtained within the QCD external field formalism. Standard-model operator evolution exhibits a suppression of anomalous effects in K and B hadronic weak decays. A genuine set of dimension-eight Delta S = 1 operators is also displayed.
We give an elementary derivation of the chiral magnetic effect based on a strong magnetic field lowest-Landau-level projection in conjunction with the well-known axial anomalies in two- and four-dimensional space-time. The argument is general, based on a Schur decomposition of the Dirac operator. In the dimensionally reduced theory, the chiral magnetic effect is directly related to the relativistic form of the Peierls instability, leading to a spiral form of the condensate, the chiral magnetic spiral. We then discuss the competition between spin projection, due to a strong magnetic field, and …
Considering that the chiral kinetic equations of motion (CEOM) can be derived from the spin kinetic equations of motion (SEOM) for massless particles with approximations, we simulate the chiral anomalies by using the latter in a box system with the periodic boundary condition under a uniform external magnetic field. We found that the chiral magnetic effect is weaker while the damping of the chiral magnetic wave is stronger from the SEOM compared with that from the CEOM. In addition, effects induced by chiral anomalies from the SEOM are less sensitive to the decay of the magnetic field than fro…
Using perturbation theory in the Euclidean (imaginary time) formalism as well as the non-perturbative Fujikawa method, we verify that the chiral anomaly equation remains unaffected in the presence of nonzero chemical potential, $μ$. We extend our considerations to fermions with exact chiral symmetry on the lattice and discuss the consequences for the recent Bloch-Wettig proposal for the Dirac operator at finite chemical potential. We propose a new simpler method of incorporating $μ$ and compare it with the Bloch-Wettig idea.
After many years of investigations, our understanding of the dynamics of strongly-coupled chiral gauge theories is still quite unsatisfactory today. Conventional wisdom about strongly-coupled gauge theories, successfully applied to QCD, is not always as useful in chiral gauge theories. Recently some new ideas and techniques have been developed, which involve concepts of generalized symmetries, of gauging a discrete center symmetry, and of generalizing the 't Hooft anomaly matching constraints to include certain mixed symmetries. This new development has been applied to chiral gauge theories, l…
Axial anomalies give rise to interesting new transport phenomena such as the "chiral magnetic effect". We discuss how the associated transport coefficients can be studied via Kubo formulas at weak and strong coupling, the latter via gauge gravity duality. We argue for a new "chiral gravito-magnetic" (or vortical) effect sensitive to the presence of mixed gauge-gravitational anomalies.
Chiral symmetry restoration high in the hadron spectra is expected but it remains to be confirmed both in lattice QCD computations and in experiments. Recently, a theorem was derived, relating chiral symmetry restoration high in the hadron spectra to the spontaneous generation of the dynamical quark mass in QCD. We refine the theorem in the case of static-light mesons. Utilizing chiral quark model computations and lattice QCD results for the spectrum of mesons composed by a static antiquark and a light quark, we explore chiral symmetry restoration in the spectrum and the quark running mass m(k…
Parametrizing the possible underlying theory or new physics' decoupling effects in the most general way we reexamined the validity of canonical trace relation and chiral symmetry in certain one-loop two-point functions. The anomalies and the relation between chiral and trace Ward identities are investigated and interpreted in the perspective of a complete underlying theory or new physics instead of regularization, with some new phenomena found as by-products.
We study two well-known $SU(N)$ chiral gauge theories with fermions in the symmetric, anti-symmetric and fundamental representations. We give a detailed description of the global symmetry, including various discrete quotients. Recent work argues that these theories exhibit a subtle mod 2 anomaly, ruling out certain phases in which the theories confine without breaking their global symmetry, leaving a gapless composite fermion in the infra-red. We point out that no such anomaly exists. We further exhibit an explicit path to the gapless fermion phase, showing that there is no kinematic obstructi…
The U(2)_R x U(2)_L symmetry of QCD with two massless flavours is subject to anomalies which affect correlation functions involving the singlet currents A^0_μor V^0_μ. These are relevant for pion-photon interactions, because - for two flavours - the electromagnetic current contains a singlet piece. We give the effective Lagrangian required for the corresponding low energy analysis to next-to-leading order, without invoking an expansion in the mass of the strange quark. In particular, the Wess-Zumino-Witten term that accounts for the two-flavour anomalies within the effective theory is written …
We consider a holographic model of QCD, obtained by a very simple modification of the original construction, which describes at the same time the pion mass, the QCD anomalies and the baryons as topological solitons. We study in detail its phenomenological implications in both the mesonic and baryonic sectors and compare with the observations.
I consider global transformations of a Dirac fermion field, that are generated by the generators of Poincar'e transformations, but with a γ_5 appended. Such chiral translations and chiral Lorentz transformations are usually not symmetries of the Lagrangian, but naively they are symmetries of the fermionic measure. However, by using proper time regularization in Minkowski space, I find that they in general give rise to a nontrivial Jacobian. In this sense they have "anomalies". I calculate these anomalies in a theory of a massive fermion coupled to an external Abelian vector field. My motivatio…
We explore the idea that in some class of strongly-coupled chiral $SU(N)$ gauge theories the infrared dynamics might be characterized by a bifermion condensate in the adjoint representation of the color gauge group. As an illustration, in this work we revisit an $SU(N)$ chiral gauge theory with Weyl fermions in a symmetric ($ψ$) and anti-antisymmetric ($χ$) tensor representations, together with eight fermions in the anti-fundamental representations ($η$), which we called $ψχη$ model in the previous investigations. We study the infrared dynamics of this system more carefully, by assuming dynami…
We discuss chiral and deconfinement aspects of the finite temperature transition in QCD using improved staggered actions. We study different quantities related to chiral and deconfinement transition and discuss their cutoff dependence. Contrary to some earlier lattice results we find that the chiral and deconfinement transition are not closely interconnected.
In a simple abelian spinor field theory, the canonical trace identities for certain axial-vector and axial-scalar operators are reexamined in dimensional regularization, some disagreements with previous results are found and an interesting new phenomenon is observed and briefly discussed.
Motivated by the search for possible CP violating terms in the trace of the energy-momentum tensor in theories coupled to gravity we revisit the problem of trace anomalies in chiral theories. We recalculate the latter and ascertain that in the trace of the energy-momentum tensor of theories with chiral fermions at one-loop the Pontryagin density appears with an imaginary coefficient. We argue that this may break unitarity, in which case the trace anomaly has to be used as a selective criterion for theories, analogous to the chiral anomalies in gauge theories. We analyze some remarkable consequ…
This is a brief report of work performed in arXiv:1106.3576. We consider the chiral transport terms in a relativistic charged superfluid, and their relation to triangle anomalies. The terms allowed by the Second Law of thermodynamics have been worked out. A simplified form is proposed on heuristic grounds, from an analysis of the better-understood chiral effects in normal fluids. We point out the appearance of a "chiral electric conductivity", and relate it through an educated guess to the axial anomaly coefficient.
Martinus Veltman was the first to point out the inconsistency of the experimental value for the decay rate of $π^0\rightarrowγγ$ and its calculation by J. Steinberger with the very successful concept of the pion as the (pseudo)Nambu-Goldstone boson of the spontaneously broken global axial symmetry of strong interactions. That inconsistency has been resolved by J. Bell and R. Jackiw in their famous paper on the chiral anomalies. We review the connection between the decay amplitudes of an axion into two gauge bosons in Abelian vector-like and chiral gauge theories. The axion is the Nambu-Goldsto…
We show that at finite density pressure-pressure and current-current correlators exhibit divergences at $T_c$ owing to the fluctuations of the diquark field. Specifically, this leads to a significant excess of the soft photon production rate near $T_c$.
It is possible to formulate fluid dynamics in terms of group-valued variables. This is particularly suited to the cases where the fluid has nonabelian charges and is coupled to nonabelian gauge fields. We explore this formulation further in this paper. An action for a fluid of relativistic particles (with and without spin) is given in terms of the Lorentz and Poincare (or de Sitter) groups. Considering the case of particles with flavor symmetries, a general fluid action which also incorporates all flavor anomalies is given. The chiral magnetic and chiral vorticity effects as well as the conseq…
A new mechanism of photon emission in the quark-gluon plasma is proposed. Photon dispersion relation in the presence of the $CP$-odd topological regions generated by the chiral anomaly acquires an imaginary mass. It allows photon radiation through the decay $q\to qγ$ and annihilation $q\bar q\to γ$ processes closely related to the chiral Cherenkov radiation. Unlike previous proposals this mechanism does not require an external magnetic field. The differential photon emission rate per unit volume is computed and shown to be comparable to the rate of photon emission in conventional processes.
The Standard Model (SM) is amended by one generation of quarks and leptons which are vector-like (VL) under the SM gauge group but chiral with respect to a new $\mathrm{U}(1)_{3-4}$ gauge symmetry. We show that this model can simultaneously explain the deviation of the muon $g-2$ as well as the observed anomalies in $b\rightarrow sμ^+μ^-$ transitions without conflicting with the data on Higgs decays, lepton flavor violation, or $B_s-\bar{B}_s$ mixing. The model is string theory motivated and GUT compatible, i.e. UV complete, and fits the data predicting VL quarks, leptons and a massive $Z'$ at…
In the framework of the chiral quark-soliton model of the nucleon we investigate the properties of the polarized quark distribution. In particular we analyse the so called anomalous difference between the representations of the quark distribution functions in terms of occupied and non-occupied quark states. By an explicit analytical calculation it is shown that this anomaly is absent in the polarized isoscalar distribution Δu + Δd, which is ultaviolet finite. In the case of the polarized isovector quark distribution Δu - Δd the anomaly can be cancelled by a Pauli-Villars subtraction which is a…
We perform a first lattice QCD simulation including two-flavor dynamical fermion with a chiral chemical potential. Because the chiral chemical potential gives rise to no sign problem, we can exactly analyze a chirally imbalanced QCD matter by the Monte Carlo simulation. By applying an external magnetic field to this system, we obtain a finite induced current along the magnetic field, which corresponds to the chiral magnetic effect. The obtained induced current is proportional to the magnetic field and to the chiral chemical potential, which is consistent with an analytical prediction.
We discuss a new channel of photon emission from the quark-gluon plasma, which opens up as photon acquires a tachyonic mass in the presence of the CP-odd topological domains generated by the chiral anomaly. It allows photon radiation through the decay $q\to qγ$ and annihilation $q\bar q\to γ$ processes closely related to the chiral Cherenkov radiation. Unlike previous proposals this mechanism does not require an external magnetic field. The differential photon emission rate per unit volume is computed and shown to be comparable to the rate of photon emission in conventional processes.
We study UV-complete Froggatt-Nielsen-like models for the generation of mass and mixing hierarchies, assuming that the integrated heavy fields are chiral with respect to an abelian Froggatt-Nielsen symmetry. It modifies the mixed anomalies with respect to the Standard Model gauge group, which opens up the possibility to gauge the Froggatt-Nielsen symmetry without the need to introduce additional spectator fermions, while keeping mass matrices usually associated to anomalous flavour symmetries. We give specific examples where this happens, and we study the flavourful axion which arises from an …
We analyze the chiral transport terms in relativistic superfluid hydrodynamics. In addition to the spontaneously broken symmetry current, we consider an arbitrary number of unbroken symmetries and extend the results of arXiv:1105.3733. We suggest an interpretation of some of the new transport coefficients in terms of chiral and gravitational anomalies. In particular, we show that with unbroken gauged charges in the system, one can observe a chiral electric conductivity - a current in a perpendicular direction to the applied electric field. We present a motivated proposal for the value of the a…
The gauging of axionic, Stueckelberg-type, shift symmetries with generalized Chern-Simons terms and the Green-Schwarz mechanism of anomaly cancellation has recently been studied in the context of certain string compactifications and with regard to the phenomenology of unusual variants of Z'-bosons. In this talk, following recent work with De Rydt, Rosseel, Schmidt and Van Proeyen, I summarize how such theories can be reconciled with global and local N=1 supersymmetry. Two simple consistency conditions are shown to encode strong constraints on the allowed anomalies for different types of gauge …
We compute the QCD phase diagram in the plane of the chiral chemical potential and temperature using the linear sigma model coupled to quarks and to the Polyakov loop. The chiral chemical potential accounts for effects of imbalanced chirality due to QCD sphaleron transitions which may emerge in heavy-ion collisions. We found three effects caused by the chiral chemical potential: the imbalanced chirality (i) tightens the link between deconfinement and chiral phase transitions; (ii) lowers the common critical temperature; (iii) strengthens the order of the phase transition by converting the cros…
We propose a variant of the Pati-Salam model, with gauge group $SU(4)_C\times SU(2)_L\times U(1)_{Y'}$, in which the chiral left-handed quarks and leptons are unified into a $\underline{4}$ of $SU(4)_C$, while the right-handed quarks and leptons have quite a distinct treatment. The $SU(4)_C$ leptoquark gauge bosons can explain the measured deviation of lepton flavour universality in the rare decays: $\bar B \to \bar K^{(*)}\bar\ell\ell, \ell=μ,e$ (taken as a hint of new physics). The model satisfies the relevant experimental constraints and makes predictions for the important $B$ and $τ$ decay…
The restrictions imposed by anomaly cancellation on the chiral fermion content of nonsupersymmetric gauge theories based on various groups are studied in spacetime dimension D=6, 8, and 10. In particular, we show that the only mathematically consistent chiral SU(5) theory in D=6 contains three nonidentical generations.
We point to a potentially large contribution of the QCD trace anomaly to the isoscalar pion pair production in Kaon decays. This contribution arises from the long-distance evolution of a 7-dimensional quark-gluon operator generated by short-distance QCD corrections to the Delta_S = 1 Fermi Hamiltonian.
We show that the quark (not nucleon) based chiral linear $σ$ model which receives strong support as a mean field theory for the strong interactions can actually be made asymptotically free by coupling to gluons. It has the further bonus of providing confinement.Alternatively, this theory is QCD that is chirally extended by the addition of a $(σ,π)$ chiral multiplet. It could therefore be a candidate theory for the strong interactions which is somewhat different from QCD.
Several recent papers -using effective QCD chiral Lagrangians- reproduced results obtained with the general QCD parameterization (GP). These include the baryon 8+10 mass formula, the octet magnetic moments and the coincidental nature of the "perfect" -3/2 ratio between the magnetic moments of p and n. Although we anticipated that the GP covers the case of chiral treatments, the above results explicitly exemplify this fact. Also we show by the GP that -in any model or theory (chiral or non chiral) reproducing the results of exact QCD- the Franklin (Coleman Glashow) sum rule for the octet magnet…
We study anomalies of six-dimensional gauge theories compactified on orbifolds. In addition to the known bulk anomalies, brane anomalies appear on orbifold fixpoints in the case of chiral boundary conditions. At a fixpoint, where the bulk gauge group G is broken to a subgroup H, the non-abelian G-anomaly in the bulk reduces to a H-anomaly which depends in a simple manner on the chiral boundary conditions. We illustrate this mechanism by means of a SO(10) GUT model.
We address the subject of chiral anomalies in two and four dimensional theories. Ambiguities associated with the $γ_5$ algebra within divergent integrals are identified, even though the physical dimension is not altered in the process of regularization. We present a minimal prescription that leads to unique results and apply it to a series of examples. For the particular case of abelian theories with effective chiral vertices, we show: 1- Its implication on the way to display the anomalies democratically in the Ward identities. 2- The possibility to fix an arbitrary surface term in such a way …
We study the polarized structure functions in QCD. We show that $g_T$ which probes helicity flip interactions in hadrons on the light-front indeed measures the QCD dynamics of chiral symmetry breaking. The relation between chiral symmetry breaking and the observed $g_2$ data is explored.
Chiral symmetry is an essential concept in understanding QCD at low energy. We treat the chiral condensate, which measures the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry, as a free parameter to investigate the effect of partially restored chiral symmetry on the physical quantities in the frame work of an AdS/QCD model. We observe an interesting scaling behavior among the nucleon mass, pion decay constant and chiral condensate. We propose a phenomenological way to introduce the temperature dependence of a physical quantity in the AdS/QCD model with the thermal AdS metric.
We analyse scalar leptoquark pair production at the LHC with predictions including $t$-channel lepton exchange contributions up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD. In particular, we calculate NLO-QCD predictions for off-diagonal production channels, {\it i.e.}\ channels that involve two different leptoquark eigenstates and are driven solely by diagrams involving Standard Model leptons in the $t$-channel at leading order, as opposed to diagonal channels where a pair of the same leptoquark eigenstate is produced. We find that reliable theoretical predictions for both channels require NLO accu…
We study symmetries and dynamics of chiral $SU(N)$ gauge theories with matter Weyl fermions in a two-index symmetric ($ψ$) or anti-symmetric tensor ($χ$) representation, together with $N \pm 4 + p $ fermions in the anti-fundamental ($η$) and $p$ fermions in the fundamental ($ξ$) representations. They are known as the Bars-Yankielowicz (the former) and the generalized Georgi-Glashow models (the latter). The conventional 't Hooft anomaly matching algorithm is known to allow a confining, chirally symmetric vacuum in all these models, with a simple set of massless baryonlike composite fermions des…
We study a class of 4-dimensional $SU(N)$ chiral gauge theories with fermions in the 2-index symmetric and antisymmetric representations and classify their infrared phases. The choice $N=4\mathbb{Z}$ corresponds to gauging the fermion number and makes the theory purely bosonic. We examine the most general background fields of the centers of the gauge, non-abelian flavor, and $U(1)$-axial groups that can be consistently activated, thereby determine the faithful global continuous and discrete symmetries of the theory. This allows us to identify new mixed 0-form/1-form `t Hooft anomalies on both …
The definition of chiral transformations in light-front field theory is very different from the conventional form in equal-time formalism. We study the consistency of chiral transformations and chiral symmetry in light-front QCD and derive a complete new light-front axial-vector current for QCD. The breaking of chiral symmetry in light-front QCD is only associated with helicity flip interaction between quarks and gluons. Remarkably, the new axial-vector current does not contain the pion pole part so that the associate chiral charge smoothly describes pion transitions for various hadronic proce…
In this paper we describe qualitatively some aspects of the holographic QCD. Inspired by a successfull 4D description, we try to separate the Confinement and the Chiral Symmetry Breaking dynamics. We also discuss the realization of the baryons as skyrmions in Soft Wall Holographic QCD, and the issue of the Vector Meson Dominance.
In the framework of Coulomb Gauge QCD we explore dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry and screening of the confinement potential at finite density. The screened potential is applied in study of charmonium dissociation.
The T-odd quark distrbutions are shown to vanish in the chiral sigma model in contrast to the opposite widespread opinion. This failure of the chiral sigma model is a feature of the model itself and has nothing to do with the recent progress in the clarification of the status of the T-odd distributions in QCD.
I give an account of my involvement with the chiral anomaly, and with the nonrenormalization theorem for the chiral anomaly and the all orders calculation of the trace anomaly, as well as related work by others. I then briefly discuss implications of these results for more recent developments in anomalies in supersymmetric theories.
We explore QCD$_4$ quark matter, the $μ$-T (chemical potential-temperature) phase diagram, possible 't Hooft anomalies, and topological terms, via non-perturbative tools of cobordism theory and higher anomaly matching. We focus on quarks in 3-color and 3-flavor on bi-fundamentals of SU(3), then analyze the continuous and discrete global symmetries and pay careful attention to finite group sectors. We input constraints from $T=CP$ or $CT$ time-reversal symmetries, implementing QCD on unorientable spacetimes and distinct topology. Examined phases include the high T QGP (quark-gluon plasma/liquid…
We study confinement and chiral symmetry breaking phase transitions for QCD and supersymmetric QCD. The method is based on some justified assumption regarding the behavior of the Green function relevant for the potential between two charges or a gap equation. We determine the number of flavors at which the transitions to confinement and chiral symmetry breaking take place. We find that whereas for chiral symmetry breaking the results are in perfect agreement with those in the literature for confinement the situation is more complex.
A search for supersymmetry anomalies requires an examination of the BRS cohomology of supersymmetric Yang-Mills coupled to chiral matter, and the physically interesting (on-shell) anomalies are those which cannot be eliminated using the equations of motion. An analysis of this cohomology problem shows that the simplest situation where a physically interesting supersymmetry anomaly can arise is when: 1. the anomaly occurs in the renormalization of a composite antichiral spinor superfield operator constructed from the chiral matter in the theory, 2. the anomalous diagrams are one-loop triangle d…
We address the presently reported significant flavor anomalies in the Kaon and $B$ meson systems such as the CP violating Kaon decay ($ε'/ε$) and lepton-flavor universality violation in $B$ meson decays ($R_{K^{(*)}},{R_{D^{(*)}}}$), by proposing flavorful and chiral vector bosons as the new physics constitution at around TeV scale. The chiral-flavorful vectors (CFVs) are introduced as a 63-plet of the global $SU(8)$ symmetry, identified as the one-family symmetry for left-handed quarks and leptons in the standard model (SM) forming the 8-dimensional vector. Thus the CFVs include massive gluon…
We present a model for the Universe in which quantum anomalies are argued to play an important dual role: they are responsible for generating matter-antimatter asymmetry, but also provide time-dependent contributions to the vacuum energy density of "running-vacuum" type, which drive the Universe evolution. During the inflationary phase of a string-inspired Universe, and its subsequent exit, the existence of primordial gravitational waves induce gravitational anomalies, which couple to the Kalb-Ramond (KR)axion field of the massless gravitational string multiplet. Such anomalous CP violating in…
