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1 vote
0 answers
64 views

Reference request scale anomaly

Can anyone recommend some books, notes and review-oriented papers on scale anomaly, with a view towards its relation to renormalization? Such as an anomaly perspective on RG, Callan-Symanzik equations ...
3 votes
1 answer
124 views

How is the dimensionful renornalization scale $\mu$ related to break of scale invariance in String Theory?

In the $7.1.1$ of David Tong's String Theory notes it is said the following about regularization of Polyakov action in a curved target manifold: $$\tag{7.3} S= \frac{1}{4\pi \alpha'} \int d^2\sigma \ ...
1 vote
0 answers
125 views

Trying to derive chiral anomaly in 2D from Feynman diagrams in position space

Trying to understand the Chiral anomaly, I decided to explore the simplest example of a holomorphic fermion in 2D in a background electromagnetic field $A\text{d}z+\bar{A}\text{d}\bar{z}$. The ...
1 vote
1 answer
256 views

Is string theory self-consistent? (Conformal anomaly)

Recently I attended a very short course on string theory. We went through the standard presentation in light-cone gauge for brevity. We ‘derived’ the Einstein field equation in the following manner. ...
4 votes
0 answers
132 views

Normalization of zero point energy in string theory

Following Joe Polchinski’s Little Book of String, page 12, he use the sum $$1+2+3+...=-1/12$$ to find the zero point energy of the bosonic string (and later used the result to argue that we must have ...
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 ...
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 ...
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Ambiguity in Beta Functions (2-loop)

Beyond one-loop, the beta function of a QFT is scheme dependent. I would like to understand better this ambiguity. The easiest thing to say is that you haven't calculated something physical, so of ...
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

Anomalous Ward Identities and anomalous dimensions

Let us consider an action $S[\phi,\partial\phi]$ which is classically invariant under a transformation group $G$. The associated Noether current $\mathcal{J}^\mu$ is classically conserved, namely $\...
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 ...
3 votes
1 answer
375 views

Does the vanishing of the one-loop beta-function imply no running to all orders?

This question sounds ridiculous, but bear with me. I am having a hard time reconciling the following two facts: Classical global symmetries can become anomalous upon quantization, and the anomalous ...
8 votes
1 answer
242 views

Viewing anomalous dimensions in RG as a quantum anomaly

Other than sharing the word “anomalous”, both the anomalous dimension in RG and the more well-known quantum anomalies (such as chiral anomaly) share a common feature. These are violations of classical ...
1 vote
0 answers
172 views

$Z_1=Z_2$ without Ward-Takahashi identity?

In the renormalization of QED, the way that $Z_1=Z_2$ is treated e.g. in Schwartz is by first giving a simple "heuristic argument" based on gauge invariance (in the beginning of section 19.5) before ...
9 votes
1 answer
267 views

How do anomalies work in the causal formulation of QFT?

In the Epstein-Glaser formulation of a QFT, the would-be divergences are taken care of by meticulously splitting the distributions that appear in the construction of the $S$-matrix (or correlation ...
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

The non-abelian chiral anomaly and one-loop diagrams higher than the triangle one

Suppose chiral fermions $\psi$ interacting with gauge fields $A_{\mu,L/R}$. With $P_{L/R} \equiv \frac{1\mp\gamma_{5}}{2}$ and $t_{a,L/R}$ denoting the generators, the corresponding action reads $$ S =...

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