Off-shell Ward identities in non-abelian gauge theory continue to be a subject of active research, since they are, in general, inhomogeneous and their form depends on the chosen gauge-fixing procedure. For the three-gluon and four-gluon vertices, it is known that a relatively simple form of the Ward identity can be achieved using the pinch technique or, equivalently, the background-field method with quantum Feynman gauge. The latter is also the gauge-fixing underlying the string-inspired formalism, and here we use this formalism to derive the corresponding form of the Ward identity for the one-loop N - gluon amplitudes.
We show both in 1+1 and 3+1 dimensions that, contrary to the recent suggestions, the contribution of the fermion loop to the polarization tensor is manifestly transverse at finite temperature. Some subtleties associated with the Ward identities at finite temperature are also pointed out.
We use supersymmetric Ward identities to relate multi-gluon helicity amplitudes involving a pair of massive quarks to amplitudes with massive scalars. This allows to use the recent results for scalar amplitudes with an arbitrary number of gluons obtained by on-shell recursion relations to obtain scattering amplitudes involving top quarks.
In the framework of the Electroweak Theory we discuss a class of gauge fixing choices suitable for the calculation of electromagnetic processes. We show in particular that, with our choices, beyond the basic Slavnov-Taylor identities guaranteeing the independence of the physical results of the particular gauge fixing, one also has the standard QED Ward identities which play a well known crucial role in the calculation of electromagnetic processes and, in particular, in the analysis of the electromagnetic radiative corrections.
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.
We show that the soft photon, gluon and graviton theorems can be understood as the Ward-Takahashi identities of large gauge transformation, i.e., diffeomorphism that does not fall off at spatial infinity. We found infinitely many new identities which constrain the higher order soft behavior of the gauge bosons and gravitons in scattering amplitudes of gauge and gravity theories. Diagrammatic representations of these soft theorems are presented.
Ward identities for reggeons are studied in the framework of effective action approach to the QCD in Regge kinematics. It is shown that they require introduction of new contributions not present in the reggeon diagrams initially. Application to vertices RR$\to$RP and RR$\to$RRP are considered and diagrams which have to be added to the QCD ones are found.
Anomalies in transverse Ward--Takahashi identities are studied, allowing discussion of the feasibility of anomalies arising in general non-symmetry Ward--Takahashi identities. We adopt the popular Fujikawa's method and rigorous dimensional renormalization to verify the existence of transverse anomalies to one-loop order and any loop order, respectively. The arbitrariness of coefficients of transverse anomalies is revealed, and a way out is also proposed after relating transverse anomalies to Schwinger terms and comparing symmetry and non-symmetry anomalies. Papers that claim the non-existence …
We consider finite superamplitudes of N=1 matter, and use superconformal symmetry to derive powerful first-order differential equations for them. Due to on-shell collinear singularities, the Ward identities have an anomaly, which is obtained from lower-loop information. We show that in the five-particle case, the solution to the equations is uniquely fixed by the expected analytic behavior. We apply the method to a non-planar two-loop five-particle integral.
We study the cancellations among Feynman diagrams that implement the Ward and Slavnov-Taylor identities corresponding to the conserved supersymmetry current in supersymmetric quantum field theories. In particular, we show that the Faddeev-Popov ghosts of gauge- and supersymmetries never decouple from the physical fields, even for abelian gauge groups. The supersymmetric Slavnov-Taylor identities provide efficient consistency checks for automatized calculations and can verify the supersymmetry of Feynman rules and the numerical stability of phenomenological predictions simultaneously.
We discuss the use of BRST symmetry and the resulting Ward identities for orbifold gauge theories as consistency checks in an arbitrary number of dimensions. We verify that both the usual orbifold symmetry breaking and the recently proposed Higgsless symmetry breaking are consistent with the nilpotency of the BRST transformation. Imposing the Ward identities resulting from the BRST symmetry on the 4-point functions of theory, we obtain relations on the coupling constants that are shown to be equivalent to the conditions for tree level unitarity. We present the complete set of these sum rules a…
We study the question of the Ward identity for "large" gauge invariance in 0+1 dimensional theories. We derive the relevant Ward identities for a single flavor fermion and a single flavor complex scalar field interacting with an Abelian gauge field. These identities are nonlinear. The Ward identity for any other complicated theory can be derived from these basic sets of identities. However, the structure of the Ward identity changes since these are nonlinear identities. In particular, we work out the "large" gauge Ward identity for a supersymmetric theory involving a single flavor of fermion a…
We analyze a formulation of QED based on the Wilson renormalization group. Although the ``effective Lagrangian'' used at any given scale does not have simple gauge symmetry, we show that the resulting renormalized Green's functions correctly satisfies Ward identities to all orders in perturbation theory. The loop expansion is obtained by solving iteratively the Polchinski's renormalization group equation. We also give a new simple proof of perturbative renormalizability. The subtractions in the Feynman graphs and the corresponding counterterms are generated in the process of fixing the physica…
We investigate non-Abelian gauge theories within a Wilsonian Renormalisation Group approach. The cut-off term inherent in this approach leads to a modified Ward identity (mWI). It is shown that this mWI is compatible with the flow and that the full effective action satisfies the usual Ward identity (WI). The universal 1-loop beta-function is derived within this approach and the extension to the 2-loop level is briefly outlined.
In this talk the gauge symmetry for Wilsonian flows in pure Yang-Mills theories is discussed. The background field formalism is used for the construction of a gauge invariant effective action. The symmetries of the effective action under gauge transformations for both the gauge field and the auxiliary background field are separately evaluated. Modified Ward-Takahashi and background field identities are used in my study. Finally it is shown how the symmetry properties of the full theory are restored in the limit where the cut-off is removed.
We derive spectral representations for the different components of the 4-point function at finite temperature in the real time formalism in terms of five real spectral densities. We explicitly calculate all these functions in QED in the hard thermal loop approximation. The Ward identities obeyed by the 1-loop 3- and 4-point functions in real time and their spectral functions are derived. We compare our results with those derived previously in the imaginary-time formalism for retarded functions in hot QCD, and we discuss the generalization of our results to non-equilibrium situations.
We analyse the recent controversy on a possible Chern-Simons like term generated through radiative corrections in QED with a CPT violating term : we prove that, if the theory is correctly defined through Ward identities and normalisation conditions, no Chern-Simons term appears, without any ambiguity. This is related to the fact that such a term is a kind of minor modification of the gauge fixing term, and then no renormalised. The past year literature on that subject is discussed, and we insist on the fact that any absence of an {\sl a priori} divergence should be explained by some symmetry o…
We rederive the $w_\infty$ Ward identities, starting from the existence of trivial linearized gauge invariances, and using the method of canceled propagators in the operator formalism. Recursion relations for certain classes of correlation functions are derived, and these correlation function are calculated exactly. We clarify the relation of these results with another derivation of the Ward identities, which relies directly on charge conservation. We also emphasize the importance of the kinematics of canceled propagators in ensuring that the Ward identities are non-trivial. Finally, we sketch…
We present a general study of 3-point functions of conformal field theory (CFT) in momentum space, following a reconstruction method for tensor correlators, based on the solution of the conformal Ward identities (CWIs), introduced in recent works. We investigate and detail the structure of the CWIs and their non-perturbative solutions, and compare them to perturbation theory, taking QED and QCD as examples. Exact solutions of CFT's in the flat background limit in momentum space are matched by the perturbative realizations in free field theories, showing that the origin the conformal anomaly is…
Planar gluon amplitudes in N=4 SYM are remarkably similar to expectation values of Wilson loops made of light-like segments. We argue that the latter can be determined by making use of the conformal symmetry of the gauge theory, broken by cusp anomalies. We derive the corresponding anomalous conformal Ward identities valid to all loops and show that they uniquely fix the form of the finite part of a Wilson loop with n cusps (up to an additive constant) for n=4 and n=5 and reduce the freedom in it to a function of conformal invariants for n>=6. We also present an explicit two-loop calculation f…
We utilise a non-local gauge transform which renders the entire action of SUSY QED invariant and respects the SUSY algebra modulo the gauge-fixing condition, to derive two- and three-point ghost-free SUSY Ward identities in SUSY QED. We use the cluster decomposition principle to find the Green's function Ward identities and then takes linear combinations of the latter to derive identities for the proper functions.
The Ward-Takahashi identities in large N field theories are expressed in a simple form using master fields. Operators appearing in these expressions are found to be generators of symmetry transformations acting on the master fields.
We study chiral properties of eigenvalue spectrum for staggered quarks. We present a new method to identify would-be zero modes and nonzero modes using their symmetry and chiral properties. Here, we review the traditional method with HYP improved staggered quarks, and extend it to a completely new method which uses the chiral Ward identities and leakage patterns to achieve the goal.
Lattice studies of QCD at temperatures above the chiral restoration and QCD with truncated low modes of the Dirac operator indicate approximate and explicit $SU(4)$ degeneracies in hadron spectra, respectively. At the same time, the QCD classical action and the path integral measure are not invariant under $SU(4)$. Here we investigate $SU(4)$ transformations in the continuum limit by deriving corresponding Ward identities. We show that, if there is a gap in low-lying modes of the Dirac operator the obtained $SU(4)$ Ward identities are simplified and look like they would be if $SU(4)$ symmetry …
In this note we show how Ward identities may be derived for a quantum field theory dual of a string theory using the AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular associated with any gauge symmetry of the bulk supergravity theory there is a corresponding constraint equation. Writing this constraint in Hamilton-Jacobi form gives a generating functional for Ward identities in the dual QFT. We illustrate the method by considering various examples.
Higher order conservation laws, associated with conserved antisymmetric tensors $j^{μ_1 ... μ_k}$ fulfilling $\partial_{μ_1} j^{μ_1 ... μ_k} \approx 0$, are shown to define rigid symmetries of the master equation. They thus lead to independent Ward identities which are explicitly derived.
We investigate the Ward identities of the $W_{\infty}$ symmetry in the Liouville theory coupled to the $(p,q)$ conformal matter. The correlation functions are defined by applying the analytic continuation procedure for the matter sector as well as the Liouville one. We then find that the Ward identities are equivalent to the $W_q$ algebra constraints deduced from the matrix model.
The connection is obtained between Ward identities and W-constraints in Generalized Kontsevich Model with the potential $X^4/4$. We show that Ward identities include W-constraints (and do not include any other constraints) for this potential and make some observations in favour of the same connection for the model with the potential of the form $X^{(K+1)}/(K+1)$ for any $K\geq 2$.
I study the Ward identities of the $w_\infty$ symmetry of the two-dimensional string theory. It is found that, not just an isolated vertex operator, but also a number of vertex operators colliding at a point can produce local charge non-conservation. The structure of all such contact terms is determined. As an application, I calculate all the non-vanishing bulk tachyon amplitudes directly through the Ward identities for a Virasoro subalgebra of the $w_\infty$.
A reformulation of the superconformal Ward identities that combines all the superconformal currents and the associated parameters in one multiplet is given for theories with rigid N=1 or N=2 supersymmetry. This form of the Ward Identities is applied to spontaneously broken N=2 Yang-Mills theory and used to derive a condition on the low energy effective action. This condition is satisfied by the solution proposed by Seiberg and Witten.
We first derive the transverse Ward-Takahashi identities (WTI) of 3-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED$_3$) by means of the canonical quantization method and the path integration method, and then prove for the first time that QED$_3$ is strictly solvable based on the transverse WTI and the longitudinal WTI, that is, the full vector and tensor vertices functions can be expressed in term of the fermion propagators in QED$_3$. Further, we discuss the effect of different $γ$ matrix representations on the full fermion-boson vertex function. It is found that the full vector vertex function doe…
We verify the QED Ward identity for the two- and three -point functions at non-equilibrium in the HTL limit. We use the Keldysh formalism of real time finite temperature field theory. We obtain an identity of the same form as the Ward identity for a set of one loop self-energy and one loop three-point vertex diagrams which are constructed from HTL effective propagators and vertices.
We show that supersymmetry Ward identities contain an anomalous term which takes the form of a surface term in Hilbert space. In the one-instanton sector the anomalous term is the integral of a total rho-derivative where rho is the instanton's size. There are cases where the anomalous term is non-zero, and cannot be modified by subtractions. This constitutes a supersymmetry anomaly. The derivation is based on Feynman rules suitable for any non-perturbative sector of a weakly-coupled, renormalizable gauge theory.
The existence of a ground ring of ghost number zero operators in the chiral BRST cohomology of the N=2 string is used to derive an infinite set of Ward identities for the closed-string scattering amplitudes at arbitrary genus. These identities are sufficient to rederive the well known vanishing theorem for loop amplitudes with more than three external legs.
Celestial holography promisingly reformulates the scattering amplitude holographically in terms of celestial conformal field theory living at null infinity. Recently, an infinite-dimensional symmetry algebra was discovered in Einstein-Yang-Mills theory. The starting point in the derivation is the celestial OPE of two soft currents, and the key ingredient is the summation of $\overline{SL(2,\mathbb R)}$ descendants in OPE. In this paper, we consider the supersymmetric Einstein-Yang-Mills theory and obtain the supersymmetric extension of the holographic symmetry algebra. Furthermore, we derive i…
We show how Supersymmetric Ward identities can be used to obtain amplitudes involving gluinos or adjoint scalars from purely gluonic amplitudes. We obtain results for all one-loop six-point NMHV amplitudes in $\NeqFour$ Super Yang-Mills theory which involve two gluinos or two scalar particles. More general cases are also discussed.
Starting from the effective action of high energy QCD we derive Ward identities for Green's functions of reggeized gluons. They follow from the gauge invariance of the effective action, and allow to derive new representations of amplitudes containing physical particles as well as reggeized gluons. We explicitly demonstrate their validity for the BFKL kernel, and we present a new derivation of the kernel.
W_4 gravity is treated algebraically, represented by a set of transformations on classical fields. The Ward identities of the theory are determined by requiring the algebra to close. The general forms for the anomalies are found by looking for solutions to the Wess-Zumino consistency conditions, and some specific cases are considered.
We study the issue of symmetries and associated Ward-like identities in the context of two-particle-irreducible (2PI) functional techniques for abelian gauge theories. In the 2PI framework, the $n$-point proper vertices of the theory can be obtained in various different ways which, although equivalent in the exact theory, differ in general at finite approximation order. We derive generalized (2PI) Ward identities for these various $n$-point functions and show that such identities are exactly satisfied at any approximation order in 2PI QED. In particular, we show that 2PI-resummed vertex functi…
Quantum Dirac constraints in generic constrained system are solved by directly calculating in the one-loop approximation the path integral with relativistic gauge fixing procedure. The calculations are based on the reduction algorithms for functional determinants extended to gauge theories. Explicit mechanism of transition from relativistic gauge conditions to unitary gauges, participating in the construction of this solution, is revealed by the method of Ward identities.
A gap in the mathematical logic in derivations in quantum field theory arises as consequence of variation before quantization. To close this gap the present paper introduces a mathematically rigorous variational calculus for operator fields. Using quantization before variation it is demonstrated that the so-called naive results are correct; in particular both Noether's theorem and the Ward-Takahashi identities retain full validity in quantum field theory.
We derive relations between viscosities and momentum conductivity in $2+1$ dimensions by finding a generalization of holographic Ward identities for the energy-momentum tensor. The generalization is novel in the sense that it goes beyond the usual identities obtained from holographic renormalization. Our results are consistent with previous field theory analysis. The main tools we use are a constant `probability current' in the gravity dual, that we are able to define for any system of linear ODEs, and parity symmetry.
For conformal field theories, it is shown how the Ward identity corresponding to dilatation invariance arises in a Wilsonian setting. In so doing, several points which are opaque in textbook treatments are clarified. Exploiting the fact that the Exact Renormalization Group furnishes a representation of the conformal algebra allows dilatation invariance to be stated directly as a property of the action, despite the presence of a regulator. This obviates the need for formal statements that conformal invariance is recovered once the regulator is removed. Furthermore, the proper subset of conforma…
The structures and the associated gauge algebra of ABJM theory in ${\cal N}=1$ superspace are reviewed. We derive the Ward identities of the theory in the class of Lorentz-type gauges at quantum level to justify the renormalizability of the model. We compute the Nielsen identities for the two-point functions of the theory with the help of enlarged BRST transformation. The identities are derived in ABJM theory to ensure the gauge independence of the physical poles of the Green's functions.
We study Ward identities for simple processes with external gauge bosons in the time-ordered perturbation theory approach to time-like noncommutative gauge theories. We demonstrate that these Ward identities cannot be satisfied when all orders in the noncommutativity parameters theta_i0 are taken into account. We conclude that in time-ordered perturbation theory one cannot solve the unitarity problem of time-like noncommutative quantum field theories.
It is demonstrated that an infinite set of string-tree level on-shell Ward identities, which are valid to all sigma-model loop orders, can be systematically constructed without referring to the string field theory. As examples, bosonic massive scattering amplitudes are calculated explicitly up to the second massive excited states. Ward identities satisfied by these amplitudees are derived by using zero-norm states in the spetrum. In particular, the inter-particle Ward identity generated by the D2xD2' zero-norm state at the second massive level is demonstrated. The four physical propagating sta…
We construct and check by explicit Feynman diagram calculations the BRST Ward identities for N=2 rigid super Yang-Mills theory and N=2 extended supergravity in four-dimensional Euclidean space without auxiliary fields. We use the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism. In the supergravity case we need one new contractible pair of complex spinor fields to obtain the usual gauge-fixing term and corresponding Nielsen-Kallosh ghosts.
In this paper we show that the one-loop graviton self-energy contribution is ultraviolet finite, without introducing counterterms, and cutoff-free in the framework of causal perturbation theory. In addition, it satisfies the gravitational Slavnov-Ward identities for the two-point connected Green function. The condition of perturbative gauge invariance to second order for loop graphs is proved. Corrections to the Newtonian potential are also derived.
We investigate symmetry breaking in two-dimensional field theories which have a holographic gravity dual. Being at large N, the Coleman theorem does not hold and Goldstone bosons are expected. We consider the minimal setup to describe a conserved current and a charged operator, and we perform holographic renormalization in order to find the correct Ward identities describing symmetry breaking. This involves some subtleties related to the different boundary conditions that a vector can have in the three-dimensional bulk. We establish which is the correct prescription that yields, after renormal…
Ward-Takahashi identities of the colored Boulatov model are derived using a generic unitary field transformation. In a specific instance, this generic transformation turns out to be a symmetry of the interaction so that particular classes of reduced Ward-Takahashi identities for that symmetry are consequently identified and interpreted.
Recently, a number of new Ward identities for large gauge transformations and large diffeomorphisms have been discovered. Some of the identities are reinterpretations of previously known statements, while some appear to be genuinely new. We use Noether's second theorem with the path integral as a powerful way of generating these kinds of Ward identities. We reintroduce Noether's second theorem and discuss how to work with the physical remnant of gauge symmetry in gauge fixed systems. We illustrate our mechanism in Maxwell theory, Yang-Mills theory, p-form field theory, and Einstein-Hilbert gra…
We show that the celebrated Painleve equations for the Ising correlation functions follow in a simple way from the Ward Identities associated with local Integrals of Motion of the doubled Ising field theory. We use these Ward Identities to derive the equations determining the matrix elements of the product $σ(x)σ(x')$ between any particle states. The result is then applied in evaluating the leading mass corrections in the Ising field theory perturbed by an external magnetic field.
We calculate bosonic open string one-loop massive scattering amplitudes for some low-lying string states. By using the periodicity relations of Jacobi theta functions, we explicitly prove an infinite number of one-loop type I stringy Ward identities derived from type I zero-norm states in the old covariant first quantized (OCFQ) spectrum of open bosonic string. The subtlety in the proofs of one-loop type II stringy Ward identities is discussed by comparing with those of string-tree cases. High-energy limit of these stringy Ward identities can be used to fix the proportionality constants betwee…
This work concerns single-trace correlations of Euclidean multi-matrix models. In the large-N limit we show that Schwinger-Dyson equations imply loop equations and non-anomalous Ward identities. Loop equations are associated to generic infinitesimal changes of matrix variables (vector fields). Ward identities correspond to vector fields preserving measure and action. The former are analogous to Makeenko-Migdal equations and the latter to Slavnov-Taylor identities. Loop equations correspond to leading large-N Schwinger-Dyson equations. Ward identities correspond to 1/N^2 suppressed Schwinger-Dy…
Ward identities of SUSY and R-symmetry relate n-point amplitudes in supersymmetric theories. We review recent work in which these Ward identities are solved in N=4 SYM and N=8 supergravity. The solution, valid at both tree and loop level, expresses any (Next-to)^K MHV superamplitude in terms of a basis of ordinary amplitudes. Basis amplitudes are classified by semi-standard tableaux of rectangular N-by-K Young diagrams. The SUSY Ward identities also impose constraints on the matrix elements of candidate ultraviolet counterterms in N=8 supergravity, and they can be studied using superamplitude …
