What is an anomaly?
High Energy Physics - Theory
2023-07-18 v1 Other Condensed Matter
Mathematical Physics
math.MP
Quantum Physics
Abstract
The anomaly of a quantum field theory is an expression of its projective nature. This starting point quickly leads to its manifestation as a special kind of field theory: a once-categorified invertible theory. We arrive at this statement through a general discussion of projectivity and a discussion of projectivity in quantum mechanics. We conclude with a general formula for the anomaly of a free spinor field.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2307.08147,
title = {What is an anomaly?},
author = {Daniel S. Freed},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.08147},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
20 pages, 3 figures