The conservation of the vector current and the axial anomaly responsible for the $π_0 \to γγ$ decay amplitude are obtained in leading order within the Taylor-Lagrange formulation of fields considered as operator-valued distributions. As for gauge theories, where this formulation eliminates all divergences and preserves gauge-symmetry, it is shown that the different contributions can be evaluated directly in $4$-dimensional space-time, with no restrictions whatsoever on the four-momentum of the internal loop, and without the need to introduce any additional non physical degrees of freedom like Pauli-Villars fields. We comment on the similar contributions responsible for the decay of the Higgs boson into two photons.
Within the framework of the recently proposed Taylor-Lagrange regularization scheme - which leads to finite elementary amplitudes in $4$-dimensional space-time with no additional dimensionful scales - we show that the trace of the energy-momentum tensor does not show any anomalous contribution even though quantum corrections are considered. Moreover, since the only renormalization we can think of within this scheme is a finite renormalization of the bare parameters to give the physical ones, the canonical dimension of quantum fields is also preserved by the use of this regularization scheme.
The generalization of the axial anomaly is considered. It is shown that bilocal axial quark operators on the light cone possess, beside the point-like anomaly, also a light-like anomaly. The consequences for the definition of anomaly-free quark distribution functions and the effect of both gluon coefficient function and splitting kernels in polarized deep inelastic scattering are discussed.
We generalize the dispersive approach to axial anomaly by A.D. Dolgov and V.I. Zakharov to a non-Abelian case with arbitrary photon virtualites. We derive the anomaly sum rule for the singlet current and obtain the $π^0,η,η'\rightarrowγγ^*$ transition form factors. Using them, we established the behavior of a nonperturbative gluon matrix element $\langle 0 |G\tilde{G} |γγ^*(q^2) \rangle$ in both spacelike and timelike regions. We found a significant contribution of the non-Abelian axial anomaly to the processes with one virtual photon, comparable to that of the electromagnetic anomaly. The dua…
A careful and complete discussion is given of the renormalization of the singlet axial anomaly equation in a vector-like nonabelian gauge theory such as QCD regularized by ordinary dimensional regularization. Pseudotensorial structures are treated with the 't Hooft-Veltman prescription. A general framework for calculations is developed, and subsequently verified by explicit computations through two loops. This is followed by a discussion of the matrix elements obtained.
We study the chiral effective theory in the presence of QCD vortices. Gauge invariance requires novel terms from vortex singularities in the gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten action, which incorporate anomaly induced currents along the vortices. We examine these terms for systems with QCD axial domain-walls bounded by vortices (vortons) under magnetic fields. We discuss how the baryon and the electric charge conservations are satisfied in these systems through interplay between domain-walls and vortices, which manifests Callan-Harvey's mechanism of the anomaly inflow.
This work presents a first study of a radiative calculation for the gravitational axial anomaly in the massless Abelian Higgs model. The two loop contribution to the anomalous correlation function of one axial current and two energy-momentum tensors, <A_alpha(z) T_μν(y) T_ρσ(x)>, is computed at an order that involves only internal matter fields. Conformal properties of massless field theories are used in order to perform the Feynman diagram calculations in the coordinate space representation. The two loop contribution is found not to vanish, due to the presence of two independent tensor struct…
We demonstrate that the amplitude $<ργ|\partial_ν(\bar qγ_νγ_5 q)|0>$ does not vanish in the limit of zero quark masses. This represents a new kind of violation of the classical equation of motion for the axial current and should be interpreted as the axial anomaly for bound states. The anomaly emerges in spite of the fact that the one loop integrals are ultraviolet-finite as guaranteed by the presence of the bound-state wave function. As a result, the amplitude behaves like $\sim 1/p^2$ in the limit of a large momentum $p$ of the current. This is to be compared with the amplitude $<γγ|\partia…
In order to treat loops in the Lorentz-violating QED model, we present a derivation of the QED axial anomaly that specifically highlights the infrared origin of the effect. This is done using dimensional regularization while treating $γ_5$ as a spectator. This enables us to revisit aspects in the fermionic sector of Lorentz-violating QED which have analogous structure to the axial anomaly. In particular, it is shown that both the Chern-Simons and photon mass operators are not induced in the one loop effective action. At lowest order in the Lorentz-violating parameter, we can define a non-relat…
Axial anomaly and nesting is elucidated in the context of the inhomogeneous chiral phase. Using the Gross-Neveu models in 1+1 dimensions, we shall discuss axial anomaly and nesting from two different points of view: one is homogeneous chiral transition and the other is the Ferrel-Fulde-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state in superconductivity, which are closely related to each other by way of duality. It is shown that axial anomaly leads to a particular kind of the FFLO state within the two dimensional Nambu-Jona Lasinio model, where axial anomaly is manifested in a different mode. Nesting is a dri…
The 1+1 dimensional massive Dirac equation is solved exactly in light-cone coordinates for $x^+ > 0$ and $x^- > -L$, in the presence of an arbitrary $x^+$ dependent electric field. Our solution resolves the ambiguity at $p^+ = 0$. We also obtain the one loop rate for pair production for a positive electric field, compute the expectation values of the vector and axial vector currents, and recover the well known anomaly $e^2 E/π$ in the divergence of the latter. A final intriguing result is that the theory seems to exhibit a phase transition in the limit of infinite $L$.
Motivated by an apparent puzzle of the light-front vacua incompatible with the axial anomaly, we have considered the two-dimensional massless Schwinger model for an arbitrary interpolating angle of the quantization surface. By examining spectral deformation of the Dirac sea under an external electric field semiclassically, we have found that the axial anomaly is quantization angle independent. This indicates an intricate nontrivial vacuum structure present even in the light-front limit.
The $SU(2)_A \times U(2)_V$-symmetric chiral linear sigma model in the presence of the axial anomaly is studied in the local-potential approximation of the Functional Renormalization Group (FRG). The renormalization group (RG) flow is investigated in a truncation which reproduces recent results for the $U(2)_A \times U(2)_V$-symmetric model in the limit of vanishing axial anomaly strength. We search for the conjectured O(4) fixed point in the presence of the $U(1)_A$ anomaly and analyze its stability properties.
Coupling of `t Hooft's determinant term is investigated in the framework of the three flavor linear sigma model as a function of the chiral condensate. Using perturbation theory around the minimum point of the effective action, we calculate the renormalization group flow of the first field dependent correction to the coupling of the conventional U_A(1) breaking determinant term. It is found that at low temperatures mesonic fluctuations make the anomaly increase when the chiral condensate decreases. As an application, we analyze the effect at the zero temperature nuclear liquid-gas transition.
The renormalization constant $Z_J$ of the flavor-singlet axial-vector current with a non-anticommuting $γ_5$ in dimensional regularization is determined to order $α_s^3$ in QCD with massless quarks. The result is obtained by computing the matrix elements of the operators appearing in the axial-anomaly equation $\big[\partial_μ J^μ_{5} \big]_{R} = \frac{α_s}{4 π}\, n_f\, {\displaystyle \mathrm{T}_{F}} \, \big[F \tilde{F} \big]_{R}$ between the vacuum and a state of two (off-shell) gluons to 4-loop order. Furthermore, through this computation, the conjectured equality between the $\overline{\mat…
The modern status of the problem of axial anomaly in QED and QCD is reviewed. Two methods of the derivation of the axial anomaly are presented: 1) by splitting of coordinates in the expression for the axial current and 2) by calculation of triangle diagrams, where the anomaly arises from the surface terms in momentum space. It is demonstrated, that the equivalent formulation of the anomaly can be given, as a sum rule for the structure function in dispersion representation of three point function of AVV interaction. It is argued, that such integral representation of the anomaly has some advanta…
The spectral properties of the Dirac Hamiltonian in the the Aharonov-Bohm potential are discussed. By using the Krein-Friedel formula, the density of states (DOS) for different self-adjoint extensions is calculated. As in the nonrelativistic case, whenever a bound state is present in the spectrum it is always accompanied by a (anti)resonance at the energy. The Aharonov-Casher theorem must be corrected for singular field configurations. There are no zero (threshold) modes in the Aharonov-Bohm potential. For our choice of the 2d Dirac Hamiltonian, the phase-shift flip is shown to occur at only p…
We discuss a connection between axial anomaly and polarized radiative processes. By comparison with the corresponding unpolarized cases, we consider some physical outputs for the $π^+$ and $Z^0$ polarized radiative decays. We analyse in detail the pattern of mass singularity cancellation.
Manifestations of strong and electromagnetic axial anomalies in two-photon decays of $η$ and $η'$ mesons are studied. Applying dispersive approach to axial anomaly in the singlet current, we obtain an anomaly sum rule containing strong and electromagnetic anomaly contributions. The relevant low energy theorem was generalized to the case of mixed states and used to evaluate the subtraction constant of the strong anomaly-related form factor $\langle 0 |G\tilde{G} |γγ\rangle$. We made a numerical estimation of the contributions of gluon and electromagnetic anomalies to the two-photon decays of $η…
We consider $(3+1)$-dimensional, Dirac electrons of arbitrary mass, propagating in the presence of electric and magnetic fields which are both parallel to the $x^3$ axis. The magnetic field is constant in space and time whereas the electric field depends arbitrarily upon the light-cone time parameter $x^+ = (x^0 + x^3)/\sqrt{2}$. We present an explicit solution to the Heisenberg equations for the electron field operator in this background. The electric field results in the creation of electron-positron pairs. We compute the expectation values of the vector and axial vector currents in the pres…
We study the transition form factors of the light mesons in the kinematics, where one photon is real and other is virtual. Using the dispersive approach to axial anomaly we show that the axial anomaly in this case reveals itself as a collective effect of meson spectrum. This allows us to get the relation between possible corrections to continuum and to lower states within QCD method which does not rely on factorization hypothesis. We show, relying on the recent data of BaBar Collaboration, that the relative correction to continuum is quite small, and small correction to continuum can dramatica…
The induced axial current and the chiral anomaly are studied in the normal phase of magnetized relativistic matter. A special attention is paid to the role of the chiral shift parameter Delta, leading to a relative shift of the longitudinal momenta in the dispersion relations of opposite chirality fermions. In the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, it is shown directly from the form of the gap equation that Delta necessarily exists in the normal phase in a magnetic field. By making use of the gauge invariant point-splitting regularization, we then show that the presence of Delta essentially modifies th…
The axial anomaly of Ginsparg-Wilson fermion operator $D$ is discussed in general for the operator $R$ which enters the chiral symmetry breaking part in the Ginsparg-Wilson relation. The axial anomaly and the index of $D$ as well as the exact realization of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem on the lattice are determined solely by the topological characteristics of the chirally symmetric operator $D_c$ in the chiral limit $ R \to 0 $.
The prescription for the $γ_5$-matrix within dimensional regularization in multiloop calculations is elaborated. The three-loop anomalous dimension of the singlet axial current is calculated.
We evaluate the axial anomaly for the general Ginsparg-Wilson fermion operator $D = D_c (\Id + R D_c)^{-1}$ with $R = r \Id$. For any chirally symmetric $D_c$ which in the free fermion limit, is free of species doubling and behaves like $i γ_μp_μ$ as $p \to 0$, the axial anomaly $\tr[γ_5 (R D) (x,x)]$ for U(1) lattice gauge theory with single fermion flavor is equal to $e^2/(32 π^2) ε_{μνλσ} F_{μν}(x) F_{λσ}(x+\hatμ+\hatν)$ plus terms which are higher orders and/or non-perturbative contribtuons. The $F \tilde{F}$ term is r-invariant and has the correct continuum limit.
Zero temperature properties of an (axial-) vector meson extended linear sigma model are discussed, concerning on the possible different realizations of the axial anomaly term. The different anomaly terms are compared with each other on the basis of a chi^2 minimalization process. It is found that there is no essential difference among the different realizations. This means that any of them can be equally used from phenomenological point of view.
Massive $U(1)$ gauge theories featuring parametrically light vectors are suspected to belong in the Swampland of consistent EFTs that cannot be embedded into a theory of quantum gravity. We study four-dimensional, chiral $U(1)$ gauge theories that appear anomalous over a range of energies up to the scale of anomaly-cancelling massive chiral fermions. We show that such theories require to be UV-completed at a finite cutoff below which a radial mode must appear, and cannot be decoupled -- a Stückelberg limit does not exist. When the infrared fermion spectrum contains a mixed $U(1)$-gravitational…
It is shown that a novel anomaly associated with transverse Ward-Takahashi identity exists for pseudo-tensor current in QED, and the anomaly gives rise to a topological index of Dirac operator in terms of Atiyah-Singer index theorem.
We extend the approach of Dolgov and Zakharov to the axial anomaly to study polarized radiative decays. We analyse the pattern of mass singularity cancellation in the corresponding decay rates. We compare polarized and unpolarized cases. The cancellation of the infrared and collinear singularities is verified to all powers of the lepton mass for the $π^+$ and $Z^0$ polarized radiative decays.
The CPT odd contribution to the effective electromagnetic action deriving from the vacuum polarization tensor in a large class of fermionic systems exhibiting Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) is calculated using thermal field theory methods, focusing upon corrections depending on the chemical potential. The systems considered exhibit the axial anomaly and their effective actions are described by axion electrodynamics whereby all the LIV parameters enter in the coupling $Θ(x)$ to the unmodified Pontryagin density. A preliminary application to type-I tilted Weyl semimetals is briefly presented…
We study the QCD phase structure in the three-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model, incorporating the chiral-diquark interplay due to the axial anomaly. We demonstrate that for a certain range of model parameters, the low temperature critical point predicted by a Ginzburg-Landau analysis appears in the phase diagram. In addition, we show that the axial anomaly presents a new scenario for a possible BEC-BCS crossover in the color-flavor locked phase of QCD.
A low energy theorem concerning a matrix element of the QCD axial anomaly between vacuum and two-photons states is tested against different instanton models. In the chiral limit the theorem is fulfilled by the Diakonov&Petrov model, whereas it is violated by single-instanton approximations. Beyond the chiral limit the theorem, and two relations established for other matrix elements of the QCD axial anomaly between vacuum and meson states, result to be violated also by the Diakonov&Petrov model.
Renormalization of the axial vector currents due to Goldstone loops is studied in a simple extension of Manohar - Georgi chiral quark model which incorporates $U(1)_A$ anomaly effects. The polarized strage quark sea in the polarized nucleon results from different renormalization of the flavor singlet and octet currents and is in reasonable agreement with the experiment.
Whilst the prospect of new $Z'$ gauge bosons with only axial couplings to the Standard Model (SM) fermions is widely discussed, examples of anomaly-free renormalisable models are lacking in the literature. We look to remedy this by constructing several motivated examples. Specifically, we consider axial vectors which couple universally to all SM fermions, as well as those which are generation-specific, leptophilic, and leptophobic. Anomaly cancellation typically requires the presence of new coloured and charged chiral fermions, and we argue that in a large class of models masses of these new s…
Axial anomaly leads to exact sum rules for transition form factors providing the important constraints to respective distribution amplitudes. This rigorous NPQCD approach is valid even if QCD factorization is broken. The status of possible small non-OPE corrections to continuum in comparison to BABAR and BELLE data is discussed.
We investigate the interplay between the chiral and diquark condensates on the basis of the Ginzburg-Landau potential with QCD symmetry. We demonstrate that the axial anomaly drives a new critical point at low temperature in the QCD phase diagram and leads to a smooth crossover between the hadronic and color superconducting phases.
In vacuum, in the chiral limit the coupling of a pion to two on-shell photons is directly related to the coefficient of the axial anomaly in QED. This relationship is lost at any nonzero temperature. Explicit calculations show that the coupling decreases with temperature and vanishes at Tc, the temperature of chiral symmetry restoration.
The axial anomaly in the divergence of the singlet axial current in QCD $+$ QED leads to low-energy theorems for the matrix element of this operator equation over vacuum and two--photon states and for the matrix element over vacuum and two--gluon states. The solution of these theorems is related only to the nonperturbative phenomena. These matrix elements are calculated in instanton vacuum generated N-JL type quark model for arbitrary $N_f .$ It is shown that this model does satisfy the low-energy theorems.
We discuss the role of the U(1) axial anomaly in the spin structure functions of the nucleon, with particular emphasis on how one might determine its x dependence in present and future deep inelastic scattering experiments. We focus on the C-odd spin structure function g3 and also the deuteron structure function g1^d.
We revisit the QCD+QED axial anomaly low-energy theorems which give an exact relation between the matrix elements of the gluon and photon parts of the axial anomaly operator equation within the framework of the {\em effective action} derived from the instanton vacuum. The matrix elements between the vacuum and two photon states and between the vacuum and two gluon states are investigated for arbitrary $N_f $ in the chiral limit. Having gauged the effective action properly, we show that the model does exactly satisfy the low-energy theorems.
We investigate what can be learnt about the $η$ -$η'$ mixing by means of dispersive representation of axial anomaly. We show that our method leads to the strong bounds for the $η-η'$ mixing angle: $θ= -15.3^o \pm 1^o$. Moreover, our result manifests also a dramatic dependence of the width $Γ_{η\to 2γ}$ on the mixing angle $θ$. This property explains how the relatively small mixing strongly effects the decay width.
In this report, I discuss the current state of the problem of the axial anomaly in quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and how the axial anomaly is related to the structure of the vacuum in QCD. In QCD, the vacuum average of the axial anomaly is proportional to a new quantum number n, the winding number. The axial anomaly condition implies that there are zero modes of the Dirac equation for a massless quark and that there is spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry in QCD, which leads to the formation of a quark condensate. The axial anomaly can be represented in the …
$Z \to γγ$ decay amplitude is considered and proven to be zero due to properties of polarization vectors and Bose statistics. Triangular diagrams for a pseudoscalar $\to γγ$ and $Z \to γγ$ processes with massive fermions in the loop are explicitely calculated. In the Standard Model axial anomaly vanishes in the sum of these diagrams as Z boson is mixed with one of the Goldstone bosons.
It is shown that the rates of the decays Upsilon(1^3D_1) -> eta Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(1^3D_2) -> eta Upsilon(1S) should be comparable to and likely exceed that of the recently discussed in the literature two-pion transition Upsilon(1D) -> pi pi Upsilon(1S). The reason for this behavior is that the discussed eta transitions are enhanced by the contribution of the anomaly in the flavor singlet axial current in QCD.
Interplay between axial anomaly and quark-hadron duality in the presence of strong mixing is considered. The anomaly sum rule for meson transition form factors based on the dispersive representation of axial anomaly and quark-hadron duality in octet channel is analyzed. The comparison of this sum rule to the experimental data on $η$ and $η'$ mesons transition form factors shows that the interval of duality in this channel is rather small, contradicting the usual understanding of quark-hadron duality. The same values of interval of duality are supported by considering the two-point correlator i…
The role of the axial anomaly in the chiral phase transition at finite temperature and quark chemical potential is investigated within a non-perturbative functional renormalization group approach. The flow equation for the grand potential is solved to leading-order in a derivative expansion of a three flavor quark-meson model truncation. The results are compared with a standard and an extended mean-field analysis, which facilitates the exploration of the influence of bosonic and fermionic fluctuations, respectively, on the phase transition. The influence of U(1)_A-symmetry breaking on the chir…
A recent proposal suggests that even if a Ginsparg-Wilson lattice Dirac operator does not possess any topological zero modes in topologically-nontrivial gauge backgrounds, it can reproduce correct axial anomaly for sufficiently smooth gauge configurations, provided that it is exponentially-local, doublers-free, and has correct continuum behavior. In this paper, we calculate the axial anomaly of this lattice Dirac operator in weak coupling perturbation theory, and show that it recovers the topological charge density in the continuum limit.
The relation for transition form factors of eta and eta' mesons is obtained by combining the exact nonperturbative QCD sum rule, following from the dispersive representation of axial anomaly, and quark-hadron duality. It is valid at all virtual photon momenta and allows one to express the transition form factors entirely in terms of meson decay constants. This relation is in a good agreement with experimental data.
The chiral susceptibility, or the first derivative of the chiral condensate with respect to the quark mass, is often used as a probe for the QCD phase transition since the chiral condensate is an order parameter of $SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R$ symmetry breaking. However, the chiral condensate also breaks the axial $U(1)$ symmetry, which is usually not paid attention to as it is already broken by anomaly and apparently gives little impact on the transition. We investigate the susceptibilities in the scalar and pseudoscalar channels in order to quantify how much the axial $U(1)$ breaking contributes…
The dispersive representation of axial anomaly leads to the anomaly sum rules (ASRs), exact nonperturbative relations in QCD. The analytical continuation of the ASRs to the time-like region is performed. The transition form factors of $π^0$, $η$ and $η'$ mesons in this region are calculated. A good agreement with the available experimental data is found. Based on the ASRs, we have provided the foundations for the vector meson dominance model in these processes.
We investigate the properties of the amplitude induced by the anomaly. In a relatively high energy region those amplitudes are constructed by the vector meson poles and the anomaly terms, in which the anomaly terms can be essentially evaluated by the triangle quark graph. We pay our attention to the anomaly term and make intensive analysis of the existing experimental data, i.e., the electromagnetic $π^0$ and $ω$ transition form factors. Our result shows that it is essential to use the constituent quark mass instead of the current quark mass in evaluating the anomaly term from the triangle gra…
We consider the experimental implications of the axial current triangle diagram anomaly in a hydrodynamic description of high density QCD. We propose a signal of an enhanced production of spin-excited hadrons in the direction of the rotation axis in off-central heavy ion collisions.
Exact chiral symmetry at finite lattice spacing would preclude the axial anomaly. In order to describe a continuum quantum field theory of Dirac fermions, lattice actions with purported exact chiral symmetry must break the flavor-singlet axial symmetry. We demonstrate that this is indeed the case by using a minimally doubled fermion action. For simplicity we consider the Abelian axial anomaly in two dimensions. At finite lattice spacing and with gauge interactions, the axial anomaly arises from non-conservation of the flavor-singlet current. Similar non-conservation also leads to the axial ano…
The QCD + QED axial anomaly low-energy theorems are applied to estimate the accuracy of an instanton vacuum - based chiral quark model. The low-energy theorems give an exact relation between the matrix elements of the gluon and photon parts of the QCD + QED axial anomaly operator equation. The matrix elements between vacuum and two photon states and between vacuum and two gluon states are calculated for arbitrary N_f. It is shown that this model does satisfy the low-energy theorems with an accuracy of $\sim 17%$. We estimate also the contribution of the nonperturbative conversion of gluons int…
We suggest a rigorous generalization of the pseudoscalar mesons mixing description in SU(3) basis. It is shown that the appearance of extra massive state nicknamed in the paper as glueball is unavoidable in any scheme with more than one angle. In this framework we develop the dispersive approach to Abelian axial anomaly of isoscalar non-singlet current. Combining it with the analysis of experimental data of charmonium radiative decays ratio we get the number of quite strict constraints for mixing parameters. Our analysis favors the equal values of axial currents coupling constants which may be…
We show that a chiral nonlinear sigma model coupled to degenerate neutrons exhibits a ferromagnetic phase at high density. The magnetization is due to the axial anomaly acting on the parallel layers of neutral pion domain walls spontaneously formed at high density. The emergent magnetic field would reach the QCD scale ~ 10^19 [G], which suggests that the quantum anomaly can be a microscopic origin of the magnetars (highly magnetized neutron stars).
