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4 votes
1 answer
294 views

Regularization and renomalization in the lightcone quantization of bosonic string

This question relates to this link. But I still don't understand it >_< In Polchinski's string theory vol I, p. 22, there is a divergence term (when $\epsilon \rightarrow 0$) in the zero point ...
user26143's user avatar
  • 6,401
18 votes
2 answers
7k views

The phrase "Trace Anomaly" seems to be used in two different ways. What's the relation between the two?

I've seen the phrase "Trace Anomaly" refer to two seemingly different concepts, though I assume they must be related in some way I'm not seeing. The first way I've seen it used is in the manner, for ...
user26866's user avatar
  • 3,492
1 vote
1 answer
389 views

Why does renormalization need an unbroken symmetry?

Common wisdom is that for a QFT to be renormalizable it must be invariant under a symmetry transformation. Why does renormalization need an unbroken symmetry? Which is the first publication that ...
Somebody's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
362 views

Conformal anomaly of free scalar in 2D

I'm trying to calculate the conformal anomaly $c$ of a free scalar on a 2-sphere. I've seen other, indirect ways to do this, but since this is a free theory I feel like it should be possible to see ...
user6013's user avatar
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