GEOMETRIC CLASSIFICATION OF CONFORMAL ANOMALIES IN ARBITRARY DIMENSIONS

被引:395
作者
DESER, S
SCHWIMMER, A
机构
[1] SISSA,I-34013 TRIESTE,ITALY
[2] INFN,I-34013 TRIESTE,ITALY
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
D O I
10.1016/0370-2693(93)90934-A
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
We give a complete geometric description of conformal anomalies in arbitrary, (necessarily even) dimension. They fall into two distinct classes: the first, based on Weyl invariants that vanish at integer dimensions, arises from finite - and hence scale-free - contributions to the effective gravitational action through a mechanism analogous to that of the (gauge field) chiral anomaly. Like the latter, it is unique and proportional to a topological term, the Euler density of the dimension, thereby preserving scale invariance. The contributions of the second class, requiring introduction of a scale through regularization, are correlated to all local conformal scalar polynomials involving powers of the Weyl tensor and its derivatives; their number increases rapidly with dimension. Explicit illustrations in dimensions 2, 4 and 6 are provided.
引用
收藏
页码:279 / 284
页数:6
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