Fermion chiral anomaly and Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index for spherical spacetime boundaries

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5217951

Schmidt, J R

We study the structure of the fermion chiral anomaly in four-dimensional Euclidean spacetime bounded by a spherical surface via the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer Index Theorem. The significance of the index theorem in physics is discussed through examples taken from high energy and solid state physics. The proof of the index theorem is then detailed in a relatively pedestrian manner. Two exactly soluble examples involving self-dual gauge fields are presented and the anomaly explicitly evaluated. These two cases consist of a fermion interacting with a U(1) electromagnetic field and an SU(2) instanton, respectively.

• Research Organization: Wisconsin Univ., Madison, WI (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5217951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645400* -- High Energy Physics-- Field Theory
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CHIRALITY
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
EUCLIDEAN SPACE
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
INSTANTONS
INTERACTIONS
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUASI PARTICLES
RIEMANN SPACE
SPACE
SPACE-TIME