In this note we review the role of homotopy groups in determining non-perturbative (henceforth `global') gauge anomalies, in light of recent progress understanding global anomalies using bordism. We explain why non-vanishing of $π_d(G)$ is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for there being a possible global anomaly in a $d$-dimensional chiral gauge theory with gauge group $G$. To showcase the failure of sufficiency, we revisit `global anomalies' that have been previously studied in 6d gauge theories with $G=SU(2)$, $SU(3)$, or $G_2$. Even though $π_6(G) \neq 0$, the bordism groups $Ω_7^\mathrm{Spin}(BG)$ vanish in all three cases, implying there are no global anomalies. In the case of $G=SU(2)$ we carefully scrutinize the role of homotopy, and explain why any 7-dimensional mapping torus must be trivial from the bordism perspective. In all these 6d examples, the conditions previously thought to be necessary for global anomaly cancellation are in fact necessary conditions for the local anomalies to vanish.
It is often stated in the literature concerning D=4,6 compact Type IIB orientifolds that tadpole cancellation conditions i) uniquely fix the gauge group (up to Wilson lines and/or moving of branes) and ii) are equivalent to gauge anomaly cancellation. We study the relationship between tadpole and anomaly cancellation conditions and qualify both statements. In general the tadpole cancellation conditions imply gauge anomaly cancellation but are stronger than the latter conditions in D=4, N=1 orientifolds. We also find that tadpole cancellation conditions in Z_N D=4,6 compact orientifolds do not …
We prove that global anomaly cancellation requires more than one generation of quarks and leptons, provided that the standard model fields propagate in two universal extra dimensions. Furthermore, if the fermions of different generations have the same gauge charges and chiralities, then global anomaly cancellation implies that there must be three generations.
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.
Compactified string theories give rise to discrete symmetries which are essential if they are to provide a realistic low energy theory. We find that in a class of four dimensional string theories these symmetries are constrained by similar conditions to those discrete anomaly cancellation conditions found in the case the discrete symmetry is a residue of a spontaneously broken gauge symmetry. Such conditions strongly constrain the allowed form of the low energy effective theory.
We derive and generalize the RR twisted tadpole cancellation conditions necessary to obtain consistent D=4, Z_N orbifold compactifications of Type IIB string theory. At least two different types of branes (or antibranes with opposite RR charges) are introduced into the construction. The matter spectra and their contribution to the non-abelian gauge anomalies are computed. Their relation with the tadpole cancellation conditions is also reviewed. The presence of tachyons is a common feature for some of the non-supersymmetric systems of branes.
The conditions for the absence of gauge anomalies in effective field theories (EFT) are rivisited. General results from the cohomology of the BRST operator do not prevent potential anomalies arising from the non-renormalizable sector, when the gauge group is not semi-simple, like in the Standard Model EFT (SMEFT). By considering a simple explicit model that mimics the SMEFT properties, we compute the anomaly in the regularized theory, including a complete set of dimension six operators. We show that the dependence of the anomaly on the non-renormalizable part can be removed by adding a local c…
We display the full anomaly structure of supergravity, including new D-term contributions to the conformal anomaly. This expression has the super-Weyl and chiral U(1)_K transformation properties that are required for implementation of the Green-Schwarz mechanism for anomaly cancellation. We outline the procedure for full anomaly cancellation. Our results have implications for effective supergravity theories from the weakly coupled heterotic string theory.
Many extensions of the Standard Model include an extra gauge boson, whose couplings to fermions are constrained by the requirement that anomalies cancel. We find a general solution to the resulting diophantine equations in the plausible case where the chiral fermion content is that of the Standard Model plus 3 right-handed neutrinos.
I show that anomaly cancellation conditions are sufficient to determine the two most important topological numbers relevant for Calabi-Yau compactification to six dimensions. This reflects the fact that K3 is the only non-trivial CY manifold in two complex dimensions. I explicitly construct the Green-Schwarz counterterms and derive sum rules for charges of additional enhanced U(1) factors and compare the results with all possible Abelian orbifold constructions of K3. This includes asymmetric orbifolds as well, showing that it is possible to regain a geometrical interpretation for this class of…
We investigate some aspects of anomaly cancellation realized by the subtraction of an anomaly pole, stressing on some of its properties in superspace. In a local formulation these subtractions can be described in terms of a physical scalar, an axion and related ghosts. They appear to be necessary for the unitarization of the theory in the ultraviolet, but they may generate an infrared instability of the corresponding effective action, signalled by ghost condensation. In particular the subtraction of the superanomaly multiplet by a pole in superspace is of dubious significance, due to the diffe…
We construct a seven-dimensional brane world in a slice of AdS_7, where the boundary matter content is fixed by the cancellation of anomalies. The seven-dimensional minimal N=2 gauged supergravity is compactified on the orbifold S^1/Z_2, and the supersymmetric bulk-boundary Lagrangian is consistently derived for boundary vector and hypermultipets up to fermionic bilinear terms. Anomaly cancellation then fixes the boundary gauge coupling in terms of the seven-dimensional Planck mass, and a topological mass parameter of the Chern-Simons term. In addition for gauge groups containing the standard …
We re-interpret the anomaly cancellation conditions for the gauge symmetries and the baryonic flavor symmetries in quiver gauge theories realized by the brane tilings from the viewpoint of flux conservation on branes.
This contribution briefly describes some developments of the use of string symmetries and anomaly cancellation mechanisms to include string loop corrections in the construction of the low-energy effective supergravity of superstrings. (Presented at the 27th International Conference on High Energy Physics, Glasgow, July 1994)
We construct new two dimensional unoriented superstring theories in two dimensions with a chiral closed string spectrum and show that anomalies cancel upon supplying the appropriate chiral open string degrees of freedom imposed by tadpole cancellation.
Smooth manifolds of G_2 holonomy, used to compactify M-theory to four dimensions, give only abelian gauge groups without charged matter multiplets. But singular G_2-manifolds can give abelian or nonabelian gauge groups with chiral fermions. We describe the mechanism of anomaly cancellation in these models, which depends upon anomaly inflow from the bulk. We also compare the anomaly predictions to what has been learned by more explicit arguments in some special cases.
The current flow from the bulk is due to the anomaly on the brane-but the absence of current flow is not, necessarily, due to anomaly cancellation, but to the absence of the chiral zero modes themselves, due to the existence of the layered phase. This can be understood in terms of the difference between the Chern-Simons terms in three and five dimensions. Thus the anomaly cancellation in four dimensions, which is essential for shielding the boundary from quantum effects within the bulk, makes sense only along the transition line between the layered and the Coulomb phase, which, in turn, requir…
We consider six-dimensional supergravity compactified on orbifolds with Wilson lines and bulk flux. Torus Wilson lines are decomposed into Wilson lines around the orbifold fixed points, and twisted boundary conditions of matter fields are related to fractional localized flux. Both, orbifold singularities and flux lead to chiral fermions in four dimensions. We show that in addition to the standard bulk and fixed point anomalies the Green-Schwarz term also cancels the four-dimensional anomaly induced by the flux background. The two axions contained in the antisymmetric tensor field both contribu…
It is well known that anomaly cancellation {\it almost} determines the hypercharges in the standard model. A related (and somewhat more stronger) phenomenon takes place in Connes' NCG framework: unimodularity (a technical condition on elements of the algebra) is {\it strictly} equivalent to anomaly cancellation (in the absence of right-handed neutrinos); and this in turn reduces the symmetry group of the theory to the standard $SU(3)\times SU(2) \times U(1)$.
This paper considers anomaly cancellation for eleven-dimensional supergravity on a manifold with boundary and theories related to heterotic $M$-theory. The Green-Schwarz mechanism is implemented without introducing distributions. The importance of the supersymmetry anomaly in constructing the low energy action is discussed and it is argued that a recently proposed action for heterotic $M$-theory gives a supersymmetric theory to all orders in the gravitational coupling $κ$.
A perturbatively renormalized Abelian Higgs-Kibble model with a chirally coupled fermion is considered. The Slavnov identity is fulfilled to all orders of perturbation theory, which is crucial for renormalizability in models with vector bosons. BRS invariance, i.e. the validity of the identity, forces the chiral anomaly to be cancelled by Wess-Zumino counterterms. This procedure preserves the renormalizability in the one-loop approximation but it violates the Froissart bounds for partial wave amplitudes above some energy and destroys renormalizability from the second order in h bar onwards due…
We show that six-dimensional backgrounds that are T^2 bundle over a Calabi-Yau two-fold base are consistent smooth solutions of heterotic flux compactifications. We emphasize the importance of the anomaly cancellation condition which can only be satisfied if the base is K3 while a T^4 base is excluded. The conditions imposed by anomaly cancellation for the T^2 bundle structure, the dilaton field, and the holomorphic stable bundles are analyzed and the solutions determined. Applying duality, we check the consistency of the anomaly cancellation constraints with those for flux backgrounds of M-th…
We show that a choice of Pauli-Villars regulators allows the cancellation of all conformal and chiral anomalies in an effective field theory from Z_3 compactification of the heterotic string with two Wilson lines and an anomalous U(1).
The mechanism by which gauge and gravitational anomalies cancel in certain string theories is reviewed. The presentation is aimed at theorists who do not necessarily specialize in string theory.
We carefully review the basic examples of anomaly cancellation in M-theory: the 5-brane anomalies and the anomalies on S^1/Z_2. This involves cancellation between quantum anomalies and classical inflow from topological terms. To correctly fix all coefficients and signs, proper attention is paid to issues of orientation, chirality and the Euclidean continuation. Independent of the conventions chosen, the Chern-Simons and Green-Schwarz terms must always have the same sign. The reanalysis of the reduction to the heterotic string on S^1/Z_2 yields a surprise: a previously neglected factor forces u…
A possibility of 5D gauge unification of $SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$ in $SU(3)_W$ is examined. The orbifold compactification allows fixed points where $SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y$ representations can be assigned. We present a few possibilities which give long proton lifetime, top-bottom mass hierarchy from geometry, and reasonable neutrino masses. In general, these {\it chiral models} can lead to fixed point anomalies. We can show easily, due to the simplicity of the model, that these anomalies are cancelled by the relevant Chern-Simons terms for all the models we consider. It is also shown that the fix…
We consider the breaking of the global conservation of gauge field charges which are commonly thought to survive the spontaneous breakdown of gauge symmetry brought about by Kalb-Ramond fields. Depending on the dilaton field and also the size of the compactifying space, the global charge breaking may take place due to world sheet instantons. In going to 3+1 dimensions one could have a serious problem in order to produce the hierarchies between the quark and the charged lepton masses using the mass protecting charges with the Green-Schwartz anomaly cancellation. Various unnatural features of th…
We consider chiral fermions interacting minimally with abelian and non-abelian gauge fields. Using a path integral approach and exploring the consequences of a mechanism of symmetry restoration, we show that the gauge anomaly has null expectation value in the vacuum for both cases (abelian and non-abelian). We argue that the same mechanism has no possibility to cancel the chiral anomaly, what eliminates competition between chiral and gauge symmetry at full quantum level. We also show that the insertion of the gauge anomaly in arbitrary gauge invariant correlators gives a null result, which poi…
We check some consistency conditions for the D9-anti-D9 system in type I string theory. The gravitational anomaly and gauge anomaly for SO(n) x SO(m) gauge symmetry are shown to be cancelled when n-m=32. In addition, we find that a string theory with USp(n) x USp(m) gauge symmetry also satisfies the anomaly cancellation conditions. After tachyon condensation, the theory reduces to a tachyon-free USp(32) string theory, though there is no spacetime supersymmetry.
Lower-dimensional (hyper)surfaces that can carry gauge or gauge/gravitational anomalies occur in many areas of physics: one-plus-one-dimensional boundaries or two-dimensional defect surfaces in condensed matter systems, four-dimensional brane-worlds in higher-dimensional cosmologies or various branes and orbifold planes in string or M-theory. In all cases we may have (quantum) anomalies localized on these hypersurfaces that are only cancelled by ``anomaly inflow'' from certain topological interactions in the bulk. Proper cancellation between these anomaly contributions of different origin requ…
We sharpen constraints related to hypercharge flux in F-theory GUTs that possess U(1) symmetries and argue that they arise as a consequence of 4-dimensional anomaly cancellation. This gives a physical explanation for all restrictions that were observed in spectral cover models while demonstrating that the phenomenological implications for a well-motivated set of models are not tied to any particular formalism.
We present calculation of the anomaly cancellation in M-theory on orbifolds $S^1/Z_2$ and $T^5/Z_2$ in the upstairs approach. The main requirement that allows one to uniquely define solutions to the modified Bianchi identities in this case is that the field strength $G$ be globally defined on $S^1$ or $T^5$ and properly transforming under $Z_2$. We solve for general $G$ that satisfies these requirements and explicitly construct anomaly-free theories in the upstairs approach. We also obtain the solutions in the presence of five-branes. All these constructions show equivalence of the downstairs …
We show the complete cancellation of gauge and gravitational anomalies in the M-theory of Horava and Witten using their boundary contribution, and a term coming from the existence of two and five-branes. A factor of three discrepancy noted in an earlier work is resolved. We end with a comment on flux quantization.
Generalized matter couplings to four-dimensional supersymmetric sigma models on general Kaehler manifolds are presented, preserving all holomorphic symmetries. Our generalization allows assignment of arbitrary U(1) charges to additional matter fermions, in all representations of (the holomorphic part of) the isometry group. This can be used to eliminate unwanted gamma_5 anomalies, in particular for the U(1) symmetry arising from the complex structure of the target space. A consistent gauging of this isometry group, or any of its subgroups, then becomes possible. When gauged in the presence of …
We give an explicit demonstration, using the rigorous Feynman rules developed in~$\0^{1}$, that the regularized trace $\tr γ_5 e^{-β\Dslash^2}$ for the gravitational chiral anomaly expressed as an appropriate quantum mechanical path integral is $β$-independent up to two-loop level. Identities and diagrammatic notations are developed to facilitate rapid evaluation of graphs given by these rules.
We review and clarify the cancellation conditions for gauge anomalies which occur when N=1, D=4 supergravity is coupled to a Kahler non-linear sigma-model with gauged isometries and Fayet-Iliopoulos couplings. For a flat sigma-model target space and vanishing Fayet-Iliopoulos couplings, consistency requires just the conventional anomaly cancellation conditions. A consistent model with non-vanishing Fayet-Iliopoulos couplings is unlikely unless the Green-Schwarz mechanism is used. In this case the U(1) gauge boson becomes massive and the D-term potential receives corrections. A Green-Schwarz me…
We present an orbifold compactification of the minimal seven dimensional supergravity. The vacuum is a slice of AdS_7 where six-branes of opposite tension are located at the orbifold fixed points. The cancellation of gauge and gravitational anomalies restricts the gauge group and matter content on the boundaries. In addition anomaly cancellation fixes the boundary gauge couplings in terms of the gravitational constant, and the mass parameter of the Chern-Simons term.
The anomaly cancellation is at the basis of the perturbative consistence of the Standard Model and it provides a partial explanation of charge quantization. We consider an effective Electroweak theory on a lattice, with a quartic interaction describing the weak forces and an interaction with the e.m. field. We prove the validity of the anomaly cancellation at a non perturbative level and with a finite lattice cut-off, even if the lattice breaks some important symmetries, on which perturbative arguments for the cancellation are based. The method of the proof has analogies with the one adopted f…
We test the Maldacena conjecture for type IIB String Theory/ N=4 Yang-Mills by calculating the one-loop corrections in the bulk theory to the Weyl anomaly of the boundary CFT when the latter is coupled to a Ricci-flat metric. The contributions cancel within each supermultiplet, in agreement with the conjecture.
In models of oriented closed strings, anomaly cancellations are deeply linked to the {\it modular invariance} of the torus amplitude. If open and/or unoriented strings are allowed, there are no non-trivial modular transformations in the additional genus-one amplitudes (Klein bottle, annulus and Möbius strip). As originally recognized by Green and Schwarz, in the ten-dimensional type-I superstring the anomaly cancellation results from a delicate interplay between the contributions of these additional surfaces. In lower-dimensional models, the possible presence of a number of antisymmetric tenso…
We establish the non-perturbative validity of the gauge anomaly cancellation condition in an effective electroweak theory of massless fermions with finite momentum cut-off and Fermi interaction. The requirement that the current is conserved up to terms smaller than the energy divided by the cut-off scale, which is the natural condition as gauge invariance is only emerging, produces the same constraint on charges as in the Standard Model. The result holds at a non-perturbative level as the functional integrals are expressed by convergent power series expansions and are analytic in a finite doma…
The $N=1$, $D=10$ Supergravity--Super--Yang--Mills (SUGRA-SYM) theory is plagued by ABBJ gauge and Lorentz anomalies which are cancelled via the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism. Due to the fact that the ABBJ anomalies are not invariant under supersymmetry (SUSY) transformations one concludes that the theory is plagued also by a SUSY anomaly. For the gauge groups $SO(32)$ and $E_8\times E_8$ we compute this SUSY anomaly, by solving a coupled cohomology problem, and we show that it can be cancelled by subtracting from the action the known Green--Schwarz counterterm, the same which c…
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…
The anomaly found by Callan and Harvey is shown to be cancelled in a three-dimensional noncommutative gauge theory coupled to a fermion with a mass function depending on one spatial coordinate (domain wall mass). This evaluation has been done for the fermion in the fundamental and adjoint representations of the gauge group in the limit of small noncommutativity $θ$ parameter.
We show how the coupling of gravitinos and gauginos to fluxes modifies anomaly cancellation in M-theory on a manifold with boundary. Anomaly cancellation continues to hold, after a shift of the definition of the gauge currents by a local gauge invariant expression in the curvatures and E8 fieldstrengths. We compute the first nontrivial correction of this kind. Warning: Ian Moss has called into question several of the numerical coefficients in the extended Dirac operators in this paper. We have not confirmed this but the reader is warned not to trust the precise coefficients in the formulae for…
We derive global consistency condition for strongly coupled heterotic string in the presence of M5-branes. Its elliptic genus is interpretable as generating functional of anomaly polynomials and so, on anomaly-free vacua, the genus is both holomorphic and modular invariant. In holomorphic basis, we identify the modular properties by calculating the phase. By interpreting the refinement parameters as background curvature of tangent and vector bundles, we identify the extended Bianchi identity for Kalb--Ramond field of heterotic M-theory in the presence of arbitrary numbers of M5-branes.
Invariant Path-Integral Quantization and Anomaly Cancellation
University of Graz (Uni Graz)（格拉茨大学）；Masaryk University (MUNI)（马萨里克大学）；Mons University (UMONS)（蒙斯大学）；Politecnico di Torino (PoliTo)（都灵理工大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Section of Torino（意大利国家核物理研究所，都灵分部）；Universidad Católica De La Santísima Concepción（圣心天主教大学）
We show that the gauge, gravitational (tangent-bundle) and their mixed anomalies arising from the localized modes near a 5-brane in the SO(32) heterotic string theory cancel with the anomaly inflow from the bulk with the use of the Green-Schwarz mechanism on the brane, similarly to the E_8 x E_8 5-brane case. We also compare our result with Mourad's analysis performed in the small-instanton limit.
We correct some intermediate expressions and arguments in hep-lat/0002009 (Nucl. Phys. B 585 (2000) 471--513). The main results do not change. We also mention some additional observations, including a constraint on a coefficient of the possible nontrivial anomaly which was not given in the paper.
We use Pauli-Villars regularization to evaluate the conformal and chiral anomalies in the effective field theories from Z3 and Z7 compactifications of the heterotic string without Wilson lines. We show that parameters for Pauli-Villars chiral multiplets can be chosen in such a way that the anomaly is universal in the sense that its coefficient depends only on a single holomorphic function of the three diagonal moduli. It is therefore possible to cancel the anomaly by a generalization of the four-dimensional Green-Schwarz mechanism. In particular we are able to reproduce the results of a string…
We study gravitational anomalies for fivebranes in M theory. We show that an apparent anomaly in diffeomorphisms acting on the normal bundle is cancelled by a careful treatment of the M theory Chern-Simons coupling in the presence of fivebranes. One interesting aspect of our treatment is the way in which a magnetic object (the fivebrane) is smoothed out through coupling to gravity and the resulting relation between antisymmetric tensor gauge transformations and diffeomorphisms in the presence of a fivebrane.
In this paper we consider orbifold compactifications of M-theory on $S^1/{\bf Z}_2\times T^4/{\bf Z}_2$. We discuss solutions of the local anomaly matching conditions by twisted vector, tensor and hypermultiplets confined on the local orbifold six-planes. In addition we consider phase-transitions among different solutions which are mediated by M-theory fivebranes which touch the local orbifold planes and are converted there to gauge instantons.
We study the constraints on five-dimensional N=1 heterotic M-theory imposed by a consistent anomaly-free coupling of bulk and boundary theory. This requires analyzing the cancellation of triangle gauge anomalies on the four-dimensional orbifold planes due to anomaly inflow from the bulk. We find that the semi-simple part of the orbifold gauge groups and certain U(1) symmetries have to be free of quantum anomalies. In addition there can be several anomalous U(1) symmetries on each orbifold plane whose anomalies are cancelled by a non-trivial variation of the bulk vector fields. The mixed U(1) n…
We show that the heterotic supersymmetry (Killing spinor equations) and the anomaly cancellation imply the heterotic equations of motion in dimensions five, six, seven, eight if and only if the connection on the tangent bundle is an instanton. For heterotic compactifications in dimension six this reduces the choice of that connection to the unique SU(3) instanton on a manifold with stable tangent bundle of degree zero.
We reconsider the Adler-Bardeen theorem for the cancellation of gauge anomalies to all orders, when they vanish at one loop. Using the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism and combining the dimensional-regularization technique with the higher-derivative gauge invariant regularization, we prove the theorem in the most general perturbatively unitary renormalizable gauge theories coupled to matter in four dimensions, and identify the subtraction scheme where anomaly cancellation to all orders is manifest, namely no subtractions of finite local counterterms are required from two loops onwards. Our approac…
We study in detail the pattern of anomaly cancellation in D=6 Type IIB Z_N orientifolds, occurring through a generalized Green-Schwarz mechanism involving several RR antisymmetric tensors and scalars fields. The starting point is a direct string theory computation of the inflow of anomaly arising from magnetic interaction of D-branes, O-planes and fixed-points, which are encoded in topological one-loop partition functions in the RR odd spin-structure. All the RR anomalous couplings of these objects are then obtained by factorization. They are responsible for a spontaneous breaking of U(1) fact…
We consider the cohomological classification of the 4+2-dimensional topological field, which is proposed by Lüscher, for SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y electroweak theory. The dependence on the admissible abelian gauge field of U(1)_Y is determined through topological argument, with SU(2)_L gauge field fixed as background. We then show the exact cancellation of the local gauge anomaly of the mixed type {SU(2)_L}^2 \times U(1)_Y at finite lattice spacing, as well as {U(1)_Y}^3, using the pseudo reality of SU(2)_L and the anomaly cancellation conditions in the electroweak theory given in terms of the hyp…
We study the noncritical two-dimensional heterotic string. Long fundamental strings play a crucial role in the dynamics. They cancel anomalies and lead to phase transitions when the system is compactified on a Euclidean circle. A careful analysis of the gauge symmetries of the system uncovers new subtleties leading to modifications of the worldsheet results. The compactification on a Euclidean thermal circle is particularly interesting. It leads us to an incompatibility between T-duality (and its corresponding gauge symmetry) and locality.
