Chiral fermions, dimensional regularization, and the trace anomaly

We investigate the trace anomaly of a chiral fermion in dimensional regularization, considering in detail the simplest case of coupling to an abelian gauge field. We apply the Breitenlohner-Maison/'t Hooft-Veltman prescription for dealing with the chiral matrix gamma(5) and verify that no parity-odd term arises in the trace anomaly. The issue treated here is analogous to that of a chiral fermion in curved spacetime, discussed in recent literature. The advantage of having a simplified background minimizes the amount of algebraic calculations and allows pinpointing better the subtle points carried by dimensional regularization. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

In this study, we investigate the trace anomaly of a chiral fermion under dimensional regularization, specifically focusing on the simplest case of coupling to an abelian gauge field. By applying the Breitenlohner-Maison/'t Hooft-Veltman prescription, we confirm the absence of parity-odd terms in the trace anomaly. This issue is analogous to the recent literature discussing chiral fermions in curved spacetime. The simplified background allows for minimized algebraic calculations and a better understanding of the subtle points related to dimensional regularization.