English

Anomalies of 4d $Spin_G$ Theories

High Energy Physics - Theory 2024-06-18 v3

Abstract

We consider 't Hooft anomalies of four-dimensional gauge theories whose fermion matter content admits SpinG(4)Spin_G(4) generalized spin structure, with GG either gauged or a global symmetry. We discuss methods to directly compute w2w3w_2\cup w_3 't Hooft anomalies involving Stiefel-Whitney classes of gauge and flavor symmetry bundles that such theories can have on non-spin manifolds, e.g. M4=CP2M_4=\mathbb{CP}^2. Such anomalies have been discussed for SU(2)SU(2) gauge theory with adjoint fermions, where they were shown to give an effect that was originally found in the Donaldson-Witten topological twist of N=2{\cal N}=2 SYM theory. We directly compute these anomalies for a variety of theories, including general GG gauge theories with adjoint fermions, SU(2)SU(2) gauge theory with fermions in general representations, and Spin(N)Spin(N) gauge theories with fundamental matter. We discuss aspects of matching these and other 't Hooft anomalies in the IR phase where global symmetries are spontaneously broken, in particular for general GgaugeG_{\rm gauge} theory with NfN_f adjoint Weyl fermions. For example, in the case of Nf=2N_f=2 we discuss anomaly matching in the IR phase consisting of hGgaugeh^\vee _{G_{\rm gauge}} copies of a CP1\mathbb{CP}^1 non-linear sigma model, including for the w2w3w_2w_3 anomalies when formulated with SpinSU(2)global(4)Spin_{SU(2)_{\rm global}}(4) structure.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2312.04756,
  title  = {Anomalies of 4d $Spin_G$ Theories},
  author = {T. Daniel Brennan and Kenneth Intriligator},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.04756},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

48 pages plus Appendix