arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L. Bonora.
Proceedings for our meeting ``What comes beyond the Standard Models'', which covered a broad series of subjects.
Usually, in order to compute an anomaly (be it chiral or trace) with a perturbative method, the lowest significant order is sufficient. With the help of gauge or diffeomorphism invariance it uniquely identifies the anomaly. This note is a short review of the ambiguities that arise in the calculation of trace anomalies, and is meant, in particular, to signal cases in which the lowest perturbative order is not enough to unambiguously identify a trace anomaly. This may shed light on some recent contradictory results.
This article, which is a review with substantial original material, is meant to offer a comprehensive description of the superfield representations of the BRST and anti-BRST algebras and their applications to some field-theoretic topics. After a review of the superfield formalism for gauge theories we present the same formalism for gerbes and diffeomorphism invariant theories. The application to diffeomorphisms leads, in particular, to a horizontal Riemannian geometry in the superspace. We then illustrate the application to the description of consistent gauge anomalies and Wess-Zumino terms, for which the formalism seems to be particularly tailor-made. The next subject covered is the higher spin YM-like theories and their anomalies. Finally, we show that the BRST superfield formalism applies as well to the N=1 super-YM theories formulated in the supersymmetric superspace, for the two formalisms go along with each other very well.
We review the attempt to construct massless gauge field theories in Minkowski spacetime that go under the name of HS-YM. We present their actions and their symmetries. We motivate their gravitational interpretation. In particular we show how to recover the local Lorentz invariance, which is absent in the original formulation of the theories. Then we propose a perturbative quantization in the so-called frozen momentum frame. We discuss physical and unphysical modes and show how to deal with them. Finally we uncover the gauge symmetry hidden under such unphysical modes. This requires a nonlocal reformulation of the theory, which is, however, characterized by an augmented degree of symmetry.
This is a review of some elementary properties of Dirac, Weyl and Majorana spinors in 4d. We focus in particular on the differences between massless Dirac and Majorana fermions, on one side, and Weyl fermions, on the other. We review in detail the definition of their effective actions, when coupled to (vector and axial) gauge fields, and revisit the corresponding anomalies using the Feynman diagram method with different regularizations. Among various well known results we stress in particular the regularization independence in perturbative approaches, while not all the regularizations fit the non-perturbative ones. As for anomalies, we highlight in particular one perhaps not so well known feature: the rigid relation between chiral and trace anomalies.
In this article we examine the Ruelle type spectral functions $\cR(s)$,which define an overall description of the content of the work. We investigate the Gopakumar-Vafa reformulation of the string partition functions, describe the N=2 Landau-Ginzburg model in terms of Ruelle type spectral functions. Furthermore, we discuss the basic properties satisfied by elliptic genera in N=2 theories, construct the functional equations for $\cR(s)$, and analyze the modular transformation laws for the elliptic genus of the Landau-Ginzburg model and study their properties in details.
We introduce and analyse a few examples of massless higher spin theories in Minkowski spacetime. They are defined in terms of master fields, i.e. fields defined in the whole phase space. More specifically we introduce the HS YM-like theories in any dimension and HS CS-like ones in any odd dimension, in both Abelian and non-Abelian cases. These theories are invariant under gauge transformations that include ordinary gauge transformations, diffeomorphisms and HS gauge transformations. They are not at first sight invariant under local Lorentz transformations, but we show how this invariance can be recovered.We explicitly write down the actions, the eom's as well as the (infinite many) conservation laws in both HS YM and HS CS cases. Then we focus in particular on the HS YM models, we illustrate their $L_\infty$ structure and perform their BRST quantization. We also introduce HS scalar and fermion master fields and show that the Higgs mechanism can be realized also in the case of HS YM theories. Next we start the discussion of the perturbative approach to quantization by means of Feynman diagrams. We show that the dependence on the conjugate momentum can be absorbed in a redefinition of the component fields, the coupling and the coordinates. In such a new frozen momentum framework, we argue that only physical states propagate in physical amplitudes and carry out a sample calculation.
This is the first paper in a series of three dealing with HS theories in flat spacetime. It is divided in three parts. The first part is an elaboration on the method of effective action, initiated in a previous paper. We study the properties of correlators of currents in the free fermion coupled to external higher spin (HS) potentials, and develop techniques for their explicit calculation. In particular we show how they can be calculated via ordinary Feynman diagram techniques. We also introduce the concept of {\it curved} $L_\infty$ algebra and show how it can be realized in the context of the fermion model. In part II we compare the results of the scalar model and those of the fermion model (coupled to HS fields). We show that the HS field formulation coming from the scalar model is the `square' of the one ensuing from the fermion model. Finally, in part III, we analyze the possible obstructions that one may meet in constructing the effective action: these are the analogs of anomalies in ordinary gauge theories. We provide explicit and compact formulas of the latter.
In a theory of a Dirac fermion field coupled to a metric-axial-tensor (MAT) background, using a Schwinger-DeWitt heat kernel technique, we compute non-perturbatively the two (odd parity) trace anomalies. A suitable collapsing limit of this model corresponds to a theory of chiral fermions coupled to (ordinary) gravity. Taking this limit on the two computed trace anomalies we verify that they tend to the same expression, which coincides with the already found odd parity trace anomaly, with the identical coefficient. This confirms our previous results on this issue.
We formulate the worldline quantization of a massive fermion model coupled to external higher spin sources. We use the relations obtained in this way to show that its regularized effective action is endowed with an $L_\infty$ symmetry. The same result holds also for a massive scalar model.
Lounesto's classification of spinors is a comprehensive and exhaustive algorithm that, based on the bilinears covariants, discloses the possibility of a large variety of spinors, comprising regular and singular spinors and their unexpected applications in physics and including the cases of Dirac, Weyl, and Majorana as very particular spinor fields. In this paper we pose the problem of an analogous classification in the framework of second quantization. We first discuss in general the nature of the problem. Then we start the analysis of two basic bilinear covariants, the scalar and pseudoscalar, in the second quantized setup, with expressions applicable to the quantum field theory extended to all types of spinors. One can see that an ampler set of possibilities opens up with respect to the classical case. A quantum reconstruction algorithm is also proposed. The Feynman propagator is extended for spinors in all classes.
In this paper we continue and improve the analysis of the effective actions obtained by integrating out a scalar and a fermion field coupled to external symmetric sources, started in the previous paper. The first subject we study is the geometrization of the results obtained there, that is we express them in terms of covariant Jacobi tensors. The second subject concerns the treatment of tadpoles and seagull terms in order to implement off-shell covariance in the initial model. The last and by far largest part of the paper is a repository of results concerning all two point correlators (including mixed ones) of symmetric currents of any spin up to 5 and in any dimensions between 3 and 6. In the massless case we also provide formulas for any spin in any dimension.
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 seagull terms in the Feynman diagram approach. A first, basic, result of this paper is that a more thorough treatment, taking account of such additional terms { and using dimensional regularization}, confirms the earlier result. The introduction of an axial symmetric tensor besides the usual gravitational metric is instrumental to a different derivation of the same result using Dirac fermions, which are coupled not only to the usual metric but also to the additional axial tensor. The action of Majorana and Weyl fermions can be obtained in two different limits of such a general configuration. The results obtained in this way confirm the previously obtained ones.
The idea we advocate in this paper is that the one-loop effective action of a free (massive) field theory coupled to external sources (via conserved currents) contains complete information about the classical dynamics of such sources. We show many explicit examples of this fact for (scalar and fermion) free field theories in various dimensions $d=3,4,5,6$ coupled to (bosonic, completely symmetric) sources with a number of spins. In some cases we also provide compact formulas for any dimension. This paper is devoted to two-point correlators, so the one-loop effective action we construct contains only the quadratic terms and the relevant equations of motion for the sources we obtain are the linearized ones.
We analyze the 3d free massive fermion theory coupled to external sources. The presence of a mass explicitly breaks parity invariance. We calculate two- and three-point functions of a gauge current and the energy momentum tensor and, for instance, obtain the well-known result that in the IR limit (but also in the UV one) we reconstruct the relevant CS action. We then couple the model to higher spin currents and explicitly work out the spin 3 case. In the UV limit we obtain an effective action which was proposed many years ago as a possible generalization of spin 3 CS action. In the IR limit we derive a different higher spin action. This analysis can evidently be generalized to higher spins. We also discuss the conservation and properties of the correlators we obtain in the intermediate steps of our derivation.
This paper deals with the classification of spinor fields according to the bilinear covariants in 7 dimensions. The previously investigated Riemannian case is characterized by either one spinor field class, in the real case of Majorana spinors, or three non-trivial classes in the most general complex case. In this paper we show that by imposing appropriate conditions on spinor fields in 7d manifolds with Lorentzian metric, the formerly obtained obstructions for new classes of spinor fields can be circumvented. New spinor fields classes are then explicitly constructed. In particular, on 7-manifolds with asymptotically flat black hole background, these spinors can define a generalized current density which further defines a time Killing vector at the spatial infinity.
We analyze the characteristic series, the $KO$ series and the series associated with the Witten genus, and their analytic forms as the $q$-analogs of classical special functions (in particular $q$-analog of the beta integral and the gamma function). $q$-series admit an analytic interpretation in terms of the spectral Ruelle functions, and their relations to appropriate elliptic modular forms can be described. We show that there is a deep correspondence between the characteristic series of the Witten genus and $KO$ characteristic series, on one side, and the denominator identities and characters of $N=2$ superconformal algebras, and the affine Lie (super)algebras on the other. We represent the characteristic series in the form of double series using the Hecke-Rogers modular identity.
A classification of spinor fields according to the associated bilinear covariants is constructed in arbitrary dimensions and metric signatures, generalizing Lounesto's 4D spinor field classification. In such a generalized classification a basic role is played by the geometric Fierz identities. In 4D Minkowski spacetime the standard bilinear covariants can be either null or non-null -- with the exception of the current density which is invariably different from zero for physical reasons -- and sweep all types of spinor fields, including Dirac, Weyl, Majorana and more generally flagpoles, flag-dipoles and dipole spinor fields. To obtain an analogous classification in higher dimensions we use the Fierz identities, which constrain the covariant bilinears in the spinor fields and force some of them to vanish. A generalized graded Fierz aggregate is moreover obtained in such a context simply from the completeness relation. We analyze the particular and important case of Riemannian 7-manifolds, where the Majorana spinor fields turn out to have a quite special place. In particular, at variance with spinor fields in 4D Minkowski spacetime that are classified in six disjoint classes, spinors in Riemannian 7-manifolds are shown to be classified, according to the bilinear covariants: (a) in just one class, in the real case of Majorana spinors; (b) in four classes, in the most general case. Much like new classes of spinor fields in 4D Minkowski spacetime have been evincing new possibilities in physics, we think these new classes of spinor fields in seven dimensions are, in particular, potential candidates for new solutions in the compactification of supergravity on a seven-dimensional manifold and its exotic versions.