We consider the $O(3)$ nonlinear sigma model with the $θ$-term and its linear counterpart in 1+1D. The model has discrete time-reflection and space-reflection symmetries at any $θ$, and enjoys the periodicity in $θ\rightarrow θ+2π$. At $θ=0,π$ it also has a charge-conjugation $C$-symmetry. Gauging the discrete space-time reflection symmetries is interpreted as putting the theory on the nonorientable $\mathbb RP^2$ manifold, after which the $2π$ periodicity of $θ$ and the $C$ symmetry at $θ=π$ are lost. We interpret this observation as a mixed 't Hooft anomaly among charge-conjugation $C$, parity $P$, and time-reversal $T$ symmetries when $θ=π$. Anomaly matching implies that in this case the ground state cannot be trivially gapped, as long as $C$, $P$ and $T$ are all good symmetries of the theory. We make several consistency checks with various semi-classical regimes, and with the exactly solvable XYZ model. We interpret this anomaly as an anomaly of the corresponding spin-half chains with translational symmetry, parity and time reversal (but not involving the $SO(3)$-spin symmetry), requiring that the ground state is never trivially gapped, even if $SO(3)$ spin symmetry is explicitly and completely broken. We also consider generalizations to $\mathbb{C}P^{N-1}$ models and show that the $C$-$P$-$T$ anomaly exists for even $N$.
We show how (a slight modification of) the noncommutative geometry bosonic spectral action can be obtained by the cancelation of the scale anomaly of the fermionic action. In this sense the standard model coupled with gravity is induced by the quantum nature of the fermions. The regularization used is very natural in noncommutative geometry and puts the bosonic and fermionic action on a similar footing.
Kraemmer and Rebhan claimed the gauge independence of the conformal anomaly of bosonic string for various gauge fixings in the framework of the perturbation theory of two-dimensional quantum gravity. It is pointed out that their proof is wrong. The gauge independence is proved for the gauge-fixings which reduce to the linearized de Donder gauge in the flat limit of the background metric. Similar remarks are made also for the Rebhan-Kraemmer current anomaly.
We consider Polyakov theory of Bosonic strings in conformal gauge which are used to study conformal anomaly. However it exhibits ghost number anomaly. We show how this anomaly can be avoided by connecting this theory to that of in background covariant harmonic gauge which is known to be free from conformal and ghost number current anomaly, by using suitably constructed finite field dependent BRST transformation.
In two recent preprints (hep-th/9710131 and hep-th/9710132), Abe and Nakanishi have claimed that the proof of the gauge independence of the conformal anomaly of the bosonic string as given by us in 1988 was wrong. A similar allegation has been made concerning our proof of the gauge independence of the sum of the ghost number and Lagrange multiplier anomalies in non-conformal gauges. In this short note we refute their criticism by explaining the simple logic of our proofs and emphasizing the points that have been missed by Abe and Nakanishi.
The general BRST-BFV analysis of anomaly in the string theory coupled to background fields is carried out. An exact equation for c-valued symbol of anomaly operator is found and structure of its solutions is studied.
We study 't Hooft anomaly matching in lattice models with strong Yukawa or multi-fermion interactions. Strong non-gauge interactions among the mirror fermions in a vectorlike lattice gauge theory are introduced with the aim to obtain, in a strong-coupling symmetric phase, a long-distance unbroken gauge theory with chiral fermions in a complex representation. We show how to use exact lattice chirality to analyze the anomaly matching conditions on chiral symmetry current correlators at finite lattice spacing and volume. We perform a Monte Carlo study of the realization of anomaly matching in a t…
We study bosonic systems on a spacetime lattice defined by path integrals of commuting fields. We introduce branch-independent bosonic (BIB) systems, whose path integral is independent of the branch structure of the spacetime simplicial complex, even for a spacetime with boundaries. In contrast, a generic lattice bosonic (GLB) system's path integral may depend on the branch structure. We find the invertible topological order characterized by the Stiefel-Whitney cocycle (e.g., 4+1d w$_2$w$_3$) to be nontrivial for BIB systems, but this topological order and a trivial gapped tensor product state…
I provide new arguments supporting the validity of the t'Hooft anomaly conditions at non zero quark chemical potential. These constraints strengthen the quark-hadron continuity scenario. Finally I review the 2SC effective Lagrangian for color superconductivity.
Some time-reversal symmetric topological orders are anomalous in that they cannot be realized in strictly two-dimensions without breaking time reversal symmetry; instead, they can only be realized on the surface of certain three-dimensional systems. We propose two quantities, which we call {\it anomaly indicators}, that can detect if a time-reversal symmetric topological order is anomalous in this sense. Both anomaly indicators are expressed in terms of the quantum dimensions, topological spins, and time-reversal properties of the anyons in the given topological order. The first indicator, $η_…
Sufficient conditions are proven for 't Hooft's consistency conditions to hold at points in the moduli space of supersymmetric gauge theories. Known results for anomaly matching in supersymmetric QCD are rederived as a sample application of the results. The results can be used to show that the anomaly matching conditions hold for s-confining theories.
The structure of the moduli space of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories is analyzed from an algebraic geometric viewpoint. The connection between the fundamental fields of the ultraviolet theory, and the gauge invariant composite fields of the infrared theory is explained in detail. The results are then used to prove an anomaly matching theorem. The theorem is used to study anomaly matching for supersymmetric QCD, and can explain all the known anomaly matching results for this case.
We elucidate that the phase diagram of massless $N$-flavor QCD under $\mathbb{Z}_N$ flavor-twisted boundary condition (massless $\mathbb{Z}_N$-QCD) is constrained by an 't Hooft anomaly involving two-form gauge fields. As a consequence, massless $\mathbb{Z}_N$-QCD turns out to realize persistent order at any temperatures and quark chemical potentials, namely, the symmetric and gapped phase is strictly forbidden. This is the first result on the finite-$(T,μ)$ phase diagram in QCD-type theories based on anomaly matching related to center and discrete axial symmetries.
We study an 't Hooft anomaly of massless QCD at finite temperature. With the imaginary baryon chemical potential at the Roberge-Weiss point, there is a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry which can be used to define confinement. We show the existence of a mixed anomaly between the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry and the chiral symmetry, which gives a strong relation between confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. The anomaly is a parity anomaly in the QCD Lagrangian reduced to three dimensions. It is reproduced in the chiral Lagrangian by a topological term related to Skyrmion charge, matching the anomaly befor…
An attempt is made at a systematic approach to anomaly matching problem in non-Abelian electric-magnetic duality in N=1 supersymmetric QCD. A strategy we employ is somewhat analogous to anomaly analyses in grand unified models where the anomaly cancellation becomes more transparent if one embeds SU(5) multiplets into a multiplet of (anomaly-free) SO(10). A complication arises in the treatment of $U^{AF}_{R}(1)^{3}$ matching where $U^{AF}_{R}(1)$ is anomaly-free $R$ symmetry. It is noted that a relatively systematic analysis of the anomaly matching is possible if one considers the formal breaki…
6d QFTs are constrained by the analog of 't Hooft anomaly matching: all anomalies for global symmetries and metric backgrounds are constants of RG flows, and for all vacua in moduli spaces. We discuss an anomaly matching mechanism for 6d N=(1,0) theories on their Coulomb branch. It is a global symmetry analog of Green-Schwarz-West-Sagnotti anomaly cancellation, and requires the apparent anomaly mismatch to be a perfect square, $ΔI_8={1\over 2}X_4^2$. Then $ΔI_8$ is cancelled by making $X_4$ an electric / magnetic source for the tensor multiplet, so background gauge field instantons yield charg…
We consider the phase structure of the linear quiver gauge theory, using the 't Hooft anomaly matching condition. This theory is characterized by the length $K$ of the quiver diagram. When $K$ is even, the symmetry and its anomaly are the same as those of massless QCD. Therefore, one can expect that the spontaneous symmetry breaking similar to the chiral symmetry breaking occurs. On the other hand, when $K$ is odd, the anomaly matching condition is satisfied by the massless composite fermions. We also consider the thermal partition function under the twisted boundary conditions. When $K$ is ev…
Elliptic hypergeometric integrals describe superconformal indices of 4d supersymmetric field theories. We show that all 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions for Seiberg dual theories can be derived from $SL(3,\mathbb{Z})$-modular transformation properties of the kernels of dual indices.
We show how to extend the 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions to discrete symmetries. We check these discrete anomaly matching conditions on several proposed low-energy spectra of certain strongly interacting gauge theories. The excluded examples include the proposed chirally symmetric vacuum of pure N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories, certain non-supersymmetric confining theories and some self-dual N=1 supersymmetric theories based on exceptional groups.
The one-loop partition function for a charged self-interacting Bose gas at finite temperature in D-dimensional spacetime is evaluated within a path integral approach making use of zeta-function regularization. For D even, a new additional vacuum term ---overlooked in all previous treatments and coming from the multiplicative anomaly related to functional determinants-- is found and its dependence on the mass and chemical potential is obtained. The presence of the new term is shown to be crucial for having the factorization invariance of the regularized partition function. In the non interactin…
The 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions are a standard tool to study and test non-perturbative issues in quantum field theory. We give a new, simple proof of the anomaly matching conditions in 2D Poincare` invariant theories. We consider the case of invariance under a large class of generalized symmetries, which include abelian and non-abelian internal symmetries, space-time symmetries generated by the stress tensor, and W-type of symmetries generated by higher spin currents.
I present a set of theories which display non-trivial `t Hooft anomaly matching for QCD with $F$ flavors. The matching theories are non-Abelian gauge theories with "dual" quarks and baryons, rather than the purely confining theories of baryons that `t Hooft originally searched for. The matching gauge groups are required to have an $F\pm 6$ dimensional representation. Such a correspondence is reminiscent of Seiberg's duality for supersymmetric (SUSY) QCD, and these theories are candidates for non-SUSY duality. However anomaly matching by itself is not sufficiently restrictive, and duality for Q…
We investigate the application of 't Hooft's anomaly matching conditions to gauge theories at finite matter density. We show that the matching conditions constrain the low-energy quasiparticle spectrum associated with possible realizations of global symmetries.
We explicitly calculate the topological terms that arise in IR effective field theories for $SU(N)$ gauge theories on $\mathbb{R}^3 \times S^1$ by integrating out all but the lightest modes. We then show how these terms match all global-symmetry 't Hooft anomalies of the UV description. We limit our discussion to theories with abelian 0-form symmetries, namely those with one flavour of adjoint Weyl fermion and one or zero flavours of Dirac fermions. While anomaly matching holds as required, it takes a different form than previously thought. For example, cubic- and mixed-$U(1)$ anomalies are ma…
We point out that we can almost always determine by the anomaly matching the full anomaly polynomial of a supersymmetric theory in 2d, 4d or 6d if we assume that its Higgs branch is the one-instanton moduli space of some group G. This method not only provides by far the simplest method to compute the central charges of known theories of this class, e.g. 4d E_{6,7,8} theories of Minahan and Nemeschansky or the 6d E-string theory, but also gives us new pieces of information about unknown theories of this class.
We note that the QCD phases at large finite density respect 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions. Specifically the spectrum of the light excitations possesses the correct quantum numbers required to obey global anomaly constraints. We argue that 't Hooft constraints can be used at finite density along with non perturbative methods to help selecting the correct phase.
The paper consists mainly of two parts. In the first part, we obtain well-defined Killing spinor equations for the low-energy effective action of the bosonic string with the conformal anomaly term. We show that the conformal anomaly term is the only scalar potential that one can add into the action that is consistent with the Killing spinor equations. In the second part, we demonstrate that the Kaluza-Klein theory can be gauged so that the Killing spinors are charged under the Kaluza-Klein vector. This gauging process generates a scalar potential with a maximum that gives rise to an AdS spacet…
We study perturbative and global anomalies at the boundaries of bosonic analogues of integer quantum Hall (BIQH) and topological insulator (BTI) phases using a description of the boundaries of these phases in terms of a nonlinear sigma model (NLSM) with Wess-Zumino term. One of the main results of the paper is that these anomalies are robust against arbitrary smooth deformations of the target space of the NLSM which describes the phase, provided that the deformations also respect the symmetry of the phase. In the first part of the paper we discuss the perturbative $U(1)$ anomaly at the boundar…
A criterion to be satisfied by a string theory of QCD is formulated in the ultraviolet regime. It arises from the trace anomaly of the QCD stress tensor computed using instantons. It is sensitive to asymptotic freedom. It appears to be related to the trace anomaly of the QCD string. Our current understanding of noncritical strings in physical dimensions is limited, but remarkably, a formal treatment of the bosonic string yields numerical agreement both in magnitude and sign for the gauge group SU(2).
We describe how Goldstone bosons of spontaneous symmetry breaking $G \to H$ can reproduce anomalies of UV theories under the symmetry group $G$ at the nonperturbative level. This is done by giving a general definition of Wess-Zumino-Witten terms in terms of the invertible field theories in $d+1$ dimensions which describe the anomalies of $d$-dimensional UV theories. The hidden local symmetry $\widehat H$, which is used to describe Goldstone bosons in coset construction $G/H$, plays an important role. Our definition also naturally leads to generalized $θ$-angles of the hidden local gauge group …
We argue that when conformal symmetry is spontaneously broken the trace anomalies in the broken and unbroken phases are matched. This puts strong constraints on the various couplings of the dilaton. Using the uniqueness of the effective action for the Goldstone supermultiplet for broken ${\cal N}=1$ superconformal symmetry the dilaton effective action is calculated.
We extend the well-known 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions for continuous global symmetries to discrete groups. We state the matching conditions for all possible anomalies which involve discrete symmetries explicitly. There are two types of discrete anomalies. For Type I anomalies, the matching conditions have to be always satisfied regardless of the details of the massive bound state spectrum. The Type II anomalies have to be also matched except if there are fractionally charged massive bound states in the theory. We check discrete anomaly matching in recent solutions of certain N=1 supers…
We compute the 't Hooft anomalies of discrete symmetries in the Pouliot type dual theories and check their anomaly matching conditions. The Pouliot type dual theories we will consider in this paper are two dual pairs; the dual pair of ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric theories of a $Spin(7)$ gauge theory with spinors and a $SU(N_f-4)$ gauge theory with a symmetric tensor, fundamentals and singlets, and the other dual pair of ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric theories of a $Spin(10)$ gauge theory with a spinor and vectors and a $SU(N_f-5)$ gauge theory with a symmetric tensor, fundamentals and singlets. We…
We discuss the possible validity in QCD of a relation between Green's functions which has been recently suggested by Son and Yamamoto, based on a class of AdS/CFT-inspired models of QCD. Our conclusion is that the relation in question is unlikely to be implemented in QCD.
We discuss the $SU(3)/[U(1)\times U(1)]$ nonlinear sigma model in 1+1D and, more broadly, its linearized counterparts. Such theories can be expressed as $U(1)\times U(1)$ gauge theories and therefore allow for two topological $θ$-angles. These models provide a field theoretic description of the $SU(3)$ chains. We show that, for particular values of $θ$-angles, a global symmetry group of such systems has a 't Hooft anomaly, which manifests itself as an inability to gauge the global symmetry group. By applying anomaly matching, the ground-state properties can be severely constrained. The anomaly…
We investigate the low energy dynamics of N=1 supersymmetric SO(N) gauge theories with a single symmetric tensor matter field. These theories exhibit non-trivial matching of global 't Hooft anomalies at the origin of moduli space. We argue that their quantum moduli spaces possess distinct Higgs and confining branches which touch at the origin in an interacting non-Abelian Coulomb phase. The matching of anomalies between microscopic degrees of freedom and colorless moduli therefore appears to be coincidental. We discuss a formal mathematical relation between the SO(N) model and an analogous Sp(…
We prove an explicit formula conjectured recently by Wang and Levin for the anomaly of time-reversal symmetry in 2+1 dimensional fermionic topological quantum field theories. The crucial step is to determine the crosscap state in terms of the modular S matrix and $\mathsf{T}^2$ eigenvalues, generalizing the recent analysis by Barkeshli et al. in the bosonic case.
We study four-dimensional N=1, 2 superconformal theory in class S obtained by compactifying the 6d N=(2, 0) theory on a Riemann surface C with outer-automorphism twist lines. From the pair-of-pants decompositions C we find various dual descriptions for the same theory having distinct gauge groups. We show that the various configurations of the twist line give rise to dual descriptions for the identical theory. We compute the 't Hooft anomaly coefficients and the superconformal indices to test dualities. Surprisingly, we find that the class S theories with twist lines wrapping 1-cycles of C hav…
We formulate ``Witten'' matching conditions for confining gauge theories. The conditions are analogous to 't Hooft's, but involve Witten's global SU(2) anomaly. Using a group theoretic result of Geng, Marshak, Zhao and Okubo, we show that if the fourth homotopy group of the flavor group $H$ is trivial ($Π_4(H) = 0$) then realizations of massless composite fermions that satisfy the 't Hooft conditions also satisfy the Witten conditions. If $Π_4 (H)$ is nontrivial, the new matching conditions can yield additional information about the low energy spectrum of the theory. We give a simple physical …
Based on Son-Yamamoto relation obtained for transverse part of triangle axial anomaly in ${\rm QCD}_4$, we derive its analog in two-dimensional system. It connects the transverse part of mixed vector-axial current two-point function with diagonal vector and axial current two-point functions. Being fully non-perturbative, this relation may be regarded as anomaly matching for conductivities or certain transport coefficients depending on the system. We consider the holographic RG flows in holographic Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theory via the Hamilton-Jacobi equation with respect to the radial coordi…
We investigate 't Hooft anomalies in the $\mathbb{CP}^{N-1}$ model in spacetime dimensions higher than two and identify two types of anomalies: One is a mixed anomaly between the $\mathrm{PSU}(N)$ flavor-rotation and magnetic symmetries, and the other is between the reflection and magnetic symmetries. The latter indicates that even in the absence of the flavor symmetry, the model cannot have a unique gapped ground state as long as the reflection and magnetic symmetries are respected. We also clarified the condition for the 't Hooft anomalies to survive under monopole deformations, which explic…
Quasiparticle excitations in $3+1$ dimensions can be either bosons or fermions. In this work, we introduce the notion of fermionic loop excitations in $3+1$ dimensional topological phases. Specifically, we construct a new many-body lattice invariant of gapped Hamiltonians, the loop self-statistics, that distinguishes two bosonic topological orders that both superficially resemble $3+1$ d ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ gauge theory coupled to fermionic charged matter. The first has fermionic charges and bosonic ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ gauge flux loops (FcBl) and is just the ordinary fermionic toric code. The second…
't Hooft anomalies are known to induce specific contributions to the effective action at finite temperature. We present a general method to directly calculate such contributions from the anomaly polynomial of a given theory, including a term which involves a $U(1)$ connection for the thermal circle isometry. Based on this observation, we show that the asymptotic behavior of the superconformal index of $4d$ $\mathcal{N}=1$ theories on the "second sheet" can be calculated by integrating the anomaly polynomial on a particular background. The integration is then performed by an equivariant method …
We study the discrete chiral- and center-symmetry 't Hooft anomaly matching in the charge-$q$ two-dimensional Schwinger model. We show that the algebra of the discrete symmetry operators involves a central extension, implying the existence of $q$ vacua, and that the chiral and center symmetries are spontaneously broken. We then argue that an axial version of the $q$$=$$2$ model appears in the worldvolume theory on domain walls between center-symmetry breaking vacua in the high-temperature $SU(2)$ ${\cal N}$$=$$1$ super-Yang-Mills theory and that it inherits the discrete 't Hooft anomalies of t…
We study properties of self-duality symmetry in the Cardy-Rabinovici model. The Cardy-Rabinovici model is the $4$d $U(1)$ gauge theory with electric and magnetic matters, and it enjoys the $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ self-duality at low-energies. $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ self-duality does not realize in a naive way, but we notice that the $ST^{p}$ duality transformation becomes the legitimate duality operation by performing the gauging of $\mathbb{Z}_N$ $1$-form symmetry with including the level-$p$ discrete topological term. Due to such complications in its realization, the fusion rule of duality defects be…
We derive a universal relation for the transverse part of triangle anomalies within a class of theories whose gravity dual is described by the Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theory. This relation provides a set of sum rules involving the masses, decay constants and couplings between resonances, and leads to the formulas for the matrix elements of the vector and axial currents in the presence of the soft electromagnetic field. We also discuss that this relation is valid in real QCD at least approximately. This may be regarded as the anomaly matching for resonances as an analogue of that for the massle…
Symmetries in Quantum Field Theory may have 't Hooft anomalies. If the symmetry is unbroken in the vacuum, the anomaly implies a nontrivial low-energy limit, such as gapless modes or a topological field theory. If the symmetry is spontaneously broken, for the continuous case, the anomaly implies low-energy theorems about certain couplings of the Goldstone modes. Here we study the case of spontaneously broken discrete symmetries, such as Z/2 and T. Symmetry breaking leads to domain walls, and the physics of the domain walls is constrained by the anomaly. We investigate how the physics of the do…
We explore 4-dimensional SU(N) gauge theory with a Weyl fermion in an irreducible self-conjugate representation. This theory, in general, has a discrete chiral symmetry. We use 't Hooft anomaly matching condition of the center symmetry and the chiral symmetry, and find constraints on the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the confining phase. The domain-walls connecting different vacua are discussed from the point of view of the 't Hooft anomaly. We consider the SU(6) gauge theory with a Weyl fermion in the rank 3 anti-symmetric representation as an example. It is argued that this theory …
Using the non-symmetric-connection approach proposed by Osborn, we demonstrate that, for a bosonic string in a specially chosen plane-fronted gravitational wave and an axion background, the conformal anomaly vanishes at the two-loop level. Under some conditions, the anomaly vanishes at all orders.
We investigate the connection between the moduli space of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories and the set of polynomial gauge invariants constrained by classical/quantum relations called syzygies. We examine the existence of a superpotential reproducing these syzygies and the link with the 't Hooft anomaly matching between the fundamental fields at high energy and the gauge invariant degrees of freedom at low energy for the flavour symmetry group. We show that the anomaly matching is equivalent to the vanishing of the flavour anomaly on the normal space to the manifold defined by the syzygies. F…
We point out that the low energy theory of 6d, N=(2,0) field theories, when away from the origin of the moduli space of vacua, necessarily includes a new kind of Wess-Zumino term. The form of this term is related to the Hopf invariant associated with π_7 (S^4). The coefficient of the Wess-Zumino term is fixed by an anomaly matching relation for a global flavor symmetry. For example, in the context of a single M5 brane probe in the background of N distant M5 branes, the probe must have the Hopf-WZ term with coefficient proportional to N(N+1). Various related checks and observations are made. We…
