How $a$-Type Anomalies Can Depend on Marginal Couplings

Open Access

How $a$ -Type Anomalies Can Depend on Marginal Couplings

Christopher P. Herzog and Itamar Shamir

Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 011601 – Published 2 January 2020

Abstract

Even dimensional defects and boundaries in conformal field theory support type $a$ anomalies on their world volume. We show that the one-point functions of marginal operators, in the presence of defects and boundaries, are anomalous, and that the Wess-Zumino consistency condition relates them to the derivative of the $a$ anomaly with respect to the marginal coupling. We also argue that the constant term $F$ for odd dimensional surfaces can depend on marginal parameters.

Received 10 September 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.011601

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Anomalies Conformal field theory

Particles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Christopher P. Herzog ¹ and Itamar Shamir ²

¹Mathematics Department, King’s College London, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
²Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Via Bonomea 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy