Anomalies and symmetric mass generation for Kaehler-Dirac fermions

This article deals with two main topics. One is odd parity trace anomalies in Weyl fermion theories in a 4d curved background, the second is the introduction of axial gravity. The motivation for reconsidering the former is to clarify the theoretical background underlying the approach and complete the calculation of the anomaly. The reference is in particular to the difference between Weyl and massless Majorana fermions and to the possible contributions from tadpole and seagul...

Supersymmetric field theories of scalars and fermions in 4-D space-time can be cast in the formalism of Kaehler geometry. In these lectures I review Kaehler geometry and its application to the construction and analysis of supersymmetric models on Kaehler coset manifolds. It is shown that anomalies can be eliminated by the introduction of line-bundle representations of the coset symmetry groups. Such anomaly-free models can be gauged consistently and used to construct alternat...

We consider the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer (APS) index theorem corresponding to the chiral symmetry of a continuum formulation of staggered fermions called K\"ahler-Dirac fermions, which have been recently investigated as an ingredient in lattice constructions of chiral gauge theories. We point out that there are two notions of chiral symmetry for K\"ahler-Dirac fermions, both having a mixed perturbative anomaly with gravity leading to index theorems on closed manifolds. By formula...

Charge conjugation (C), mirror reflection (R), and time reversal (T) symmetries, along with internal symmetries, are essential for massless Majorana and Dirac fermions. These symmetries are sufficient to rule out potential fermion bilinear mass terms, thereby establishing a gapless free fermion fixed point phase, pivotal for symmetric mass generation (SMG) transition. In this work, we systematically study the anomaly of C-R-T-internal symmetry in all spacetime dimensions by a...

We present a novel mechanism for generating gauge-invariant fermion masses through global anomalies at the three loop level. In a gauge theory, global anomalies are triggered by the possible existence of scalar or pseudoscalar states and heavy fermions, whose masses may not necessarily result from spontaneous symmetry breaking. The implications of this mass-generating mechanism for model building are discussed, including the possibility of creating low-scale fermion masses by...

Massless 2+1D Dirac fermions arise in a variety of systems from graphene to the surfaces of topological insulators, where generating a mass is typically associated with breaking a symmetry. However, with strong interactions, a symmetric gapped phase can arise for multiples of eight Dirac fermions. A continuous quantum phase transition from the massless Dirac phase to this massive phase, which we term Symmetric Mass Generation (SMG), is necessarily beyond the Landau paradigm a...

A recent work [2006.16996] suggests that a 4d nonperturbative global anomaly of mod 16 class hinting a possible new hidden gapped topological sector beyond the Standard Model (SM) and Georgi-Glashow $su(5)$ Grand Unified Theory (GUT) with 15n chiral Weyl fermions and a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_{4,X}$ symmetry of $X=5({\bf B- L})-4Y$. This $\mathbb{Z}_{16}$ class global anomaly is a mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly between the discrete $X$ and spacetime backgrounds. The new topol...

We revisit discrete gauge anomalies in chiral fermion theories in $3+1$ dimensions. We focus on the case that the full symmetry group of fermions is $\mathrm{Spin}(4)\times\mathbb{Z}_n$ or $(\mathrm{Spin}(4)\times\mathbb{Z}_{2m})/\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ with $\mathbb{Z}_2$ being the diagonal $\mathbb{Z}_2$ subgroup. The anomalies are determined by the consistency condition --- based on the Dai-Freed theorem --- of formulating a chiral fermion theory on a generic spacetime manifold wi...

We show that the assumption of non-zero topological susceptibility of the vacuum in a fermion-free version of a theory, such as gravity or QCD, suffices to conclude the following: Once N massless fermion flavors are added to the theory, they break the chiral flavor symmetry dynamically, down to a subgroup that would be anomaly-free under gauging; In both theories, the pseudo-Goldstone corresponding to axial U(1)-symmetry becomes massive; In QCD as well as in gravity the massl...

Standard lore uses local anomalies to check the kinematic consistency of gauge theories coupled to chiral fermions, e.g. Standard Models (SM). Based on a systematic cobordism classification, we examine constraints from invertible quantum anomalies (including all perturbative local and nonperturbative global anomalies) for gauge theories. We also clarify the different uses of these anomalies: including (1) anomaly cancellations of dynamical gauge fields, (2) 't Hooft anomaly m...