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Instantons and massless fermions in two dimensions

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7284867· OSTI ID:7284867

The role of instantons in the breakdown of chiral U(N) symmetry is studied in a two dimensional model. Chiral U(1) is always destroyed by the axial vector anomaly. For N = 2 chiral SU(N) is also spontaneously broken yielding massive fermions and three (decoupled) Goldstone bosons. For N greater than or equal to 3 the fermions remain massless. Realistic four dimensional theories are believed to behave in a similar way but the critical N above which the fermions cease to be massive is not known in four dimensions.

Research Organization:
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J. (USA); Princeton Univ., N.J. (USA). Joseph Henry Labs.
DOE Contract Number:
EY-76-S-02-2220
OSTI ID:
7284867
Report Number(s):
COO-2220-110
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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