A derivation of the anomaly-induced transport phenomena---the chiral magnetic/vortical effect---is revisited based on the imaginary-time formalism of quantum field theory. Considering the simplest anomalous system composed of a single Weyl fermion, we provide two derivations: perturbative (one-loop) evaluation of the anomalous transport coefficient, and the anomaly matching for the local thermodynamic functional.
We present a simple derivation of the one-loop trace anomaly in spinor QED through dispersion relations, avoiding completely any ultraviolet regularization. The anomaly can be expressed as a convergent sum rule for the imaginary part of a relevant formfactor. In the massless limit, the imaginary part produces a delta-function singularity at zero external momentum squared. Such a treatment reveals an "infrared face" of the trace anomaly, in striking similarity with the well-known case of the axial anomaly.
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…
We rewrite the imaginary-time formalism of finite temperature field theory in a form that all graphs used in calculating physical processes do not have any loops. Any production of a particle from a heat bath which is itself not thermalized or the decay and absorption of a similar particle in the bath is expressed entirely in terms of the sum of particle interaction processes. These are themselves very general in meaning. They can be straight forward interactions or the more subtle and less well-known purely interference processes that do not have a counter part in the vacuum.
We suggest the existence of systems in which the statistics of a particle changes with the quantum level it occupies. The occupation numbers in thermal equilibrium depend on a continuous statistical parameter that interpolates between bosonic or fermionic and ghost-like statistical distributions. We call such particle states ``ninions'': they are different from anyons and can exist in 3+1 dimensions. We suggest that ninions can be associated with coherent angular momentum states. In the Euclidean imaginary-time formalism, the ninionic statistics can be implemented via the rotwisted boundary co…
Following the successful construction of the finite T real-time formalism in temporal axial gauge, we attempt to further study the equivalent new imaginary-time formalism of James and Landshoff based on the same Hamiltonian approach in the hope that it will provide the answer to Debye screening in QCD. It turns out that, unlike in the real-time case, energy conservation does not hold because of the unusual representation of the longitudinal field forced upon by the Hamiltonian formulation.
We calculate the trace anomaly of a Weyl fermion coupled to gravity by using Fujikawa's method supplemented by the choice of a consistent regulator. The latter is constructed out of Pauli-Villars regulating fields. The motivation for presenting such a calculation stems from recent studies that suggest that the trace anomaly of chiral fermions in four dimensions might contain an imaginary part proportional to the Pontryagin density. We find that the trace anomaly of a Weyl fermion is given by half the trace anomaly of a Dirac fermion, so that no imaginary part proportional to the Pontryagin den…
Acceleration as a circular motion along an imaginary circle: Kubo-Martin-Schwinger condition for accelerating field theories in imaginary-time formalism
In this article we study a nonlocal Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (nNJL) model with a Gaussian regulator in presence of a uniform magnetic field. We take a mixed approach to the incorporation of temperature in the model, and consider aspects of both real and imaginary time formalisms. We include confinement in the model through the quasiparticle interpretation of the poles of the propagator. The effect of the magnetic field in the deconfinement phase transition is then studied. It is found that, like with chiral symmetry restoration, magnetic catalysis occurs for the deconfinement phase transition. It i…
In the imaginay-time formalism of thermal field theory, and also in the real-time formalism but by means of some redefined physical propagators for scalar bound states by diagonalization of four-point function matrices, we reexamine the Nambu-Goldstone mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking in a one-generation fermion condensate scheme, based on the Schwinger-Dyson equation in the fermion bubble diagram approximation, and compare the obtained results. We have reached the conclusion that in both the formalisms, the Goldstone theorem of spontaneous electroweak symmetry breaking is rigorously…
We analyze vacuum tunneling in quantum field theory in a general formalism by using the Wigner representation. In the standard instanton formalism, one usually approximates the initial false vacuum state by an eigenstate of the field operator, imposes Dirichlet boundary conditions on the initial field value, and evolves in imaginary time. This approach does not have an obvious physical interpretation. However, an alternative approach does have a physical interpretation: in quantum field theory, tunneling can happen via classical dynamics, seeded by initial quantum fluctuations in both the fiel…
The field-antifield quantization method is used to calculate the trace anomaly for a massless scalar field in a curved background, by means of the zeta function regularization procedure.
We study the path-integral formalism in the imaginary-time to show its validity in a case with a metastable ground state. The well-known method based on the bounce solution leads to the imaginary part of the energy even for a state that is only metastable and has a simple oscillating behavior instead of decaying. Although this has been argued to be the failure of the Euclidean formalism, we show that proper account of the global structure of the path-space leads to a valid expression for the energy spectrum, without the imaginary part. For this purpose we use the proper valley method to find a…
Based on the real-time formalism, especially, on Thermo Field Dynamics, we derive the Schwinger-Dyson gap equation for the fermion propagator in QED and Four-Fermion model at finite-temperature and -density. We discuss some advantage of the real-time formalism in solving the self-consistent gap equation, in comparison with the ordinary imaginary-time formalism. Once we specify the vertex function, we can write down the SD equation with only continuous variables without performing the discrete sum over Matsubara frequencies which cannot be performed in advance without further approximation in t…
We derive the relativistic thermodynamic scale equation using imaginary-time path integrals, with complex scalar field theory taken as a concrete example. We use Fujikawa's method to derive the scaling anomaly for this system using a matrix regulator. We make a general scaling argument to show how for anomalous systems, the $β$ function of the vacuum theory can be derived from measurement of macroscopic thermodynamic parameters.
In recent years, there have been controversy concerning the anomaly mediated gaugino mass in the superspace formalism of supergravity. In this paper, we reexamine the gaugino mass term in this formalism by paying particular attention to symmetry which controls gaugino masses in supergravity. We first discuss super-Diffeomorphism invariance of path-integral measures of charged superfields. As we will show, the super-Diffeomorphism invariant measure is not invariant under a super-Weyl transformation, which is the origin of the anomaly mediated gaugino mass. We show how the anomaly mediated gaugi…
A possible way toward the quantization of a weak gravitational field inspired by the imaginary-time field theory is discussed. The analogies of the general relativity in the canonical formulation with the thermodynamic geometry and superfluids are also pointed out. The proposed regularization method in the imaginary-time formalism of field theory shows a good chance removing theoretical obstacles and constructing a perturbative theory of quantum gravity.
In this paper we reconsider the derivation of anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking. We work in a general formalism where the F-term of the conformal compensator superfield is arbitrary. This allows for a continuous interpolation between the original derivation and a more recent Dine-Seiberg derivation of anomaly mediation. We show that the physical soft parameters are independent of the compensator F-term and results of two formalisms agree. Finally, we discuss the role of supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric thresholds in the effective low energy Lagrangian as well as the effects of expli…
By rigorous reanalysis of the results, we have proven that the propagators at finite temperature for scalar bound states in one-generation fermion condensate scheme of electroweak symmetry breaking are in fact identical in the imaginary-time and the real-time formalism. This dismisses the doubt about possible discrepancy between the two formalisms in this problem. Identity of the derived thermal transformation matrices of the real-time matrix propagators for scalar bound states without and with chemical potential and the ones for corresponding elementary scalar particles shows similarity of th…
Some of the well-known effects regarding the vacuum are revisited under the formalism of the imaginary-time field theory. From these effects, they could imply the existence of one thermal vacuum in different circumstances. The imaginary-time hamiltonian of the vacuum is found to provide not only exact distribution functions in the calculations of the Casimir effect and the Van der Waals force but also cutoff functions. The thermal bath for the Unruh effect is constructed from the imaginary-time Green function. From the field theory in the curved space-time, field quantizations are defined acco…
We revisit the chiral anomaly in the quantum kinetic theory in the Wigner function formalism under the background field approximation. Our results show that the chiral anomaly is actually from the Dirac sea or the vacuum contribution in the un-normal-ordered Wigner function. We also demonstrate that this contribution modifies the chiral kinetic equation for antiparticles.
We calculate the trace (conformal) anomaly for chiral fermions in a general curved background using Hadamard subtraction. While in intermediate steps of the calculation imaginary terms proportional to the Pontryagin density appear, imposing a vanishing divergence of the stress tensor these terms completely cancel, and we recover the well-known result equal to half the trace anomaly of a Dirac fermion. We elaborate in detail on the advantages of the Hadamard method for the general definition of composite operators in general curved spacetimes, and speculate on possible causes for the appearance…
The role of chirality is discussed in unifying the anomaly and the tunneling formalisms for deriving the Hawking effect. Using the chirality condition and starting from the familiar form of the trace anomaly, the chiral (gravitational) anomaly, manifested as a nonconservation of the stress tensor, near the horizon of a black hole, is derived. Solution of this equation yields the stress tensor whose asymptotic infinity limit gives the Hawking flux. Finally, use of the same chirality condition in the tunneling formalism gives the Hawking temperature that is compatible with the flux obtained by a…
This review represents a detailed and comprehensive discussion of the Thermal Field Theory (TFT) concepts and key results in Yukawa-type theories. We start with a general pedagogical introduction into the TFT in the imaginary- and real-time formulation. As phenomenologically relevant implications, we present a compendium of thermal decay rates for several typical reactions calculated within the framework of the real-time formalism and compared to the imaginary-time results found in the literature. Processes considered here are those of a neutral (pseudo)scalar decaying into two distinct (pseud…
Using the imaginary time formalism in thermal field theory, we derive running coupling constant and running mass in two loop order. In the process, we express the imaginary time formalism of Feynman diagrams as the summation of non-thermal quantum field theory (QFT) Feynman diagrams with coefficients that depend on temperature and mass. Renormalization constants for thermal $ϕ^4$ theory were derived using simple diagrammatic analysis. Our model links the non-thermal QFT and the imaginary time formalism by assuming both have the same mass scale $μ$ and coupling constant $g$. When these results …
Recently it was shown that the quantum vacuum effects of massless chiral fermion field in curved space-time leads to the parity-violating Pontryagin density term, which appears in the trace anomaly with imaginary coefficient. In the present work the anomaly-induced effective action with the parity-violating term is derived. The result is similar to the Chern-Simons modified general relativity, which was extensively studied in the last decade, but with the kinetic terms for the scalar different from those considered previously in the literature. The parity-breaking term makes no effect on the z…
The nonlocal regularization method, recently proposed in ref.\,\ct{emkw91,kw92,kw93}, is extended to general gauge theories by reformulating it along the ideas of the antibracket-antifield formalism. From the interplay of both frameworks a fully regularized version of the field-antifield (FA) formalism arises, being able to deal with higher order loop corrections and to describe higher order loop contributions to the BRST anomaly. The quantum master equation, considered in the FA framework as the quantity parametrizing BRST anomalies, is argued to be incomplete at two and higher order loops an…
We reexamine physical causal propagators for scalar and pseudoscalar bound states at finite temperature in a chiral $U_L(1)\times U_R(1)$ NJL model, defined by four-point amputated functions subtracted through the gap equation, and prove that they are completely equivalent in the imaginary-time and real-time formalism by separating carefully the imaginary part of the zero-temperature loop integral. It is shown that the thermal transformation matrix of the matrix propagators for these bound states in the real-time formalism is precisely the one of the matrix propagator for an elementary scalar …
The chiral Dirac determinant is calculated using the overlap formalism of Narayanan and Neuberger. We compare the real and imaginary parts of the determinant with the continuum result for perturbative gauge field backgrounds and show that they are identical. Thus we find that the overlap formalism passes a crucial test.
We study the Lorentz invariance of D=4 and 6 superstrings in the double-spinor formalism, which are equivalent to the D=4 and 6 superstrings in the pure-spinor formalism in the sense of the BRST cohomology. We first re-examine how the conformal and Lorentz anomalies appear in the D=4 and 6 Green-Schwarz superstrings in the semi-light-cone gauge in the framework of BRST quantization. We construct a set of BRST invariant Lorentz generators and show that they do not form a closed algebra, even cohomologically. We then turn to the construction of Lorentz generators in the D=4 and 6 double-spinor s…
In the context of quantum field theory, an anomaly exists when a theory has a classical symmetry which is not a symmetry of the quantum theory. This short exposition aims at introducing a new point of view, which is that the proper setting for anomaly calculations is the `in-in', or closed-time path formulation of quantum field theory. There are also some new results for anomalies in the context of boundary value problems, and a new correction to the $a_5$ heat-kernel coefficient.
Fermions with magnetic charges can contribute to anomalies. We derive the axial anomaly and gauge anomalies for monopoles and dyons, and find eight new gauge anomaly cancelation conditions in a general theory with both electric and magnetic charges. As a byproduct we also extend the Zwanziger two-potential formalism to include the theta parameter, and elaborate on the condition for CP invariance in theories with fermionic dyons.
We show that modularity and the gap condition make the holomorphic anomaly equation completely integrable for non-compact Calabi-Yau manifolds. This leads to a very efficient formalism to solve the topological string on these geometries in terms of almost holomorphic modular forms. The formalism provides in particular holomorphic expansions everywhere in moduli space including large radius points, the conifold loci, Seiberg-Witten points and the orbifold points. It can be also viewed as a very efficient method to solve higher genus closed string amplitudes in the $\frac{1}{N^2}$ expansion of m…
Based on a previously developed recursive approach for calculating the short-time expansion of the propagator for systems with time-independent potentials and its time-dependent generalization for simple single-particle systems, in this paper we present a full extension of this formalism to a general quantum system with many degrees of freedom in a time-dependent potential. Furthermore, we also present a recursive approach for the velocity-independent part of the effective potential, which is necessary for calculating diagonal amplitudes and partition functions, as well as an extension from th…
We analyze renormalization and the high temperature expansion of the one-loop effective action of the space-time noncommutative ϕ^4 theory by using the zeta function regularization in the imaginary time formalism (i.e., on S^1 x R^3). Interestingly enough, there are no mixed (non-planar) contributions to the counterterms as well as to the power-law high temperature asymptotics. We also study the Wick rotation and formulate assumptions under which the real and imaginary time formalisms are equivalent.
We study relation between Chiral Separation Effect (CSE) and Chiral Anomaly, and argue that CSE does not inherit the immutability of Chiral Anomaly. For QED in the leading order in electric charge, with point-splitting regularization in real-time formalism, we demontrate, in regularization-dependent way though, that CSE is an infrared (IR) effect, while the Anomaly is an ultra-violet (UV) phenomena. Thus, CSE in general is sensitive to non-perturbative interactions that alter the theory IR properties, while the Anomaly is fixed by Lorentz symmetry. The simplest example of such an interaction i…
In the extended antifield formalism, a quantum BRST differential for anomalous gauge theories is constructed. Local BRST cohomological classes are characterized, besides the form degree and the ghost number, by the length of their descents and of their lifts, and this both in the standard and the extended antifield formalism. It is shown that during the BRST invariant renormalization of a local BRST cohomological class, the anomaly that can appear is constrained to be a local BRST cohomological class with a shorter descent and a longer lift than the given class. As an application of both resul…
We are dealing with two-dimensional gravitational anomalies, specifically with the Einstein anomaly and the Weyl anomaly, and we show that they are fully determined by dispersion relations independent of any renormalization procedure (or ultraviolet regularization). The origin of the anomalies is the existence of a superconvergence sum rule for the imaginary part of the relevant formfactor. In the zero mass limit the imaginary part of the formfactor approaches a $δ$-function singularity at zero momentum squared, exhibiting in this way the infrared feature of the gravitational anomalies. We fin…
The evolution of QCD coupling constant at finite temperature is considered by making use of the finite temperature renormalization group equation up to the one-loop order in the background field method with the Feynman gauge and the imaginary time formalism. The results are compared with the ones obtained in the literature. We point out, in particular, the origin of the discrepancies between different calculations, such as the choice of gauge, the break-down of Lorentz invariance, imaginary versus real time formalism and the applicability of the Ward identities at finite temperature.
We outline a novel chiral kinetic theory framework for systematic computations of the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME) in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. The real part of the fermion determinant in the QCD effective action is expressed as a supersymmetric world-line action of spinning, colored, Grassmanian point particles in background gauge fields, with equations of motion that are covariant generalizations of the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi and Wong equations. Berry's phase is obtained in a consistent non-relativistic adiabatic limit. The chiral anomaly, in contrast, arises from the phase of…
In [1], we demonstrated that the structure function $g_1(x_B,Q^2)$ measured in polarized deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) is dominated by the triangle anomaly in both the Bjorken limit of large $Q^2$ and the Regge limit of small $x_B$. In the worldline formulation of quantum field theory, the triangle anomaly arises from the imaginary part of the worldline effective action. We show explicitly how a Wess-Zumino-Witten term coupling the topological charge density to a primordial isosinglet ${\bar η}$ arises in this framework. We demonstrate the fundamental role played by this contribution both …
We propose a generalization of Chern-Simons (CS) modified gravity in first-order formalism. CS modified gravity action has a term that comes from the chiral anomaly which is Pontryagin invariant. First-order CS modified gravity is a torsional theory and in a space-time with torsion the chiral anomaly includes a torsional topological term called Nieh-Yan invariant. We generalize the CS modified gravity by adding the Nieh-Yan term to the action and find the effective theory. We compare the generalized theory with the first-order CS modified gravity and comment on the similarities and differences…
We extend our recently-proposed formalism for calculating anomalies of global and gauge symmetries using the Covariant Derivative Expansion to include a general class of operators that can appear in relativistic Effective Field Theories (EFTs). This allows us to prove that EFT operators involving general scalar, vector, and tensor couplings to fermion bilinears only give rise to irrelevant anomalies, which can be removed by an appropriate choice of counterterms, thereby confirming the absence of new constraints from anomaly cancellation on the Standard Model EFT.
Institute of Modern Physics, Northwest University（西北大学现代物理研究所）；Peng Huanwu Center for Fundamental Theory（彭桓武理论物理中心）；Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Theoretical Physics Frontiers（陕西理论物理前沿重点实验室）
The aim of this note is to discuss, in a somewhat informal language, the cancellation of anomalies (in topologically trivial space-time) for 5-branes using as "building blocks": i) a generalization to p-branes of the Dirac strings of monopoles (Dirac branes) and a refinement of this idea involving a geometric regularization of Dirac branes, leading to the formalism of "characteristic currents" ii) the PST formalism . As an example of the potentiality of the developed framework we discuss in some detail the anomaly cancellation in the D=10 effective theory of heterotic string and 5-brane couple…
In the Schwinger model at finite temperature, we derive a closed form result for the chiral anomaly which arises from the long distance behavior of the electric field \cite{frenkel}. We discuss the general properties associated with this thermal anomaly as well as its relation with the "index" of the Dirac operator. We further show that the thermal anomaly, like the zero temperature anomaly which arises from the ultraviolet behavior of the theory, does not receive any contribution from higher loops. Finally, we determine the complete effective action as well as the anomaly functional on both t…
Defining chiral lattice gauge theories in the Ginsparg-Wilson formalism is complicated by the so-called fermion measure problem. It has been proven for the abelian theories that smooth well-behaved fermion measure exists if and only if the anomaly-free condition is granted, and the same was shown to hold in perturbative theories for non-abelian gauge groups, but the non-perturbative proof is absent. In this paper, we consider a simpler problem in 2-d and present a proof for the existence of smooth and gauge invariant fermion measure on the gauge field configuration space with zero field streng…
The complex-time formalism is developed in the framework of the path-integral formalism, to be used for analysis of the quantum tunneling phenomena. We show that subleading complex-time saddle-points do not account for the right WKB result. Instead, we develop a reduction formula, which enables us to construct Green functions from simple components of the potential, for which saddle-point method is applicable. This method leads us to the valid WKB result, which incorporates imaginary-time instantons and bounces, as well as the real-time boundary conditions.
A new formulation of fermions based on a second order action is proposed. An analysis of the $U(1)$ anomaly allows us to test the validity of the formalism at the quantum level. This formulation gives a new perpective to the introduction of parity non-invariant interactions.
Within the closed time path formalism a general nonperturbative expression is derived which resums through the Bethe-Salpter equation all leading order contributions to the shear viscosity in hot scalar field theory. Using a previously derived generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem for nonlinear response functions in the real-time formalism, it is shown that the Bethe-Salpeter equation decouples in the so-called (r,a) basis. The general result is applied to scalar field theory with pure lambda*phi**4 and mixed g*phi**3+lambda*phi**4 interactions. In both cases our calculation confirms the…
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 use the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formalism and the methods of equivariant quantization of Costello and Gwilliam to produce a new, mathematical derivation of this result. Using these methods, we formalize two conventional interpretations of the axial anomaly, the first as a violation of current conservation at the quantum level and the second as the obstruction to the existence of a well-defined fermionic partition function. Moreover,…
We propose a new formulation of chiral fermions on a lattice, on the basis of a lattice extension of the covariant regularization scheme in continuum field theory. The species doublers do not emerge. The real part of the effective action is just one half of that of Dirac-Wilson fermion and is always gauge invariant even with a finite lattice spacing. The gauge invariance of the imaginary part, on the other hand, sets a severe constraint which is a lattice analogue of the gauge anomaly free condition. For real gauge representations, the imaginary part identically vanishes and the gauge invarian…
