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Weyl anomaly for chiral fermions

Enrique Álvarez1,*, Luis Álvarez-Gaumé2,†, Jesús Anero1,‡, and Carmelo P. Martín3,§

  • *Contact author: enrique.alvarez@uam.es
  • †Contact author: lalvarezgaume@scgp.stonybrook.edu
  • ‡Contact author: jesusanero@gmail.com
  • §Contact author: carmelop@fis.ucm.es

Phys. Rev. D 113, 105016 – Published 22 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ry3t-xm88

Abstract

We compute the parity-odd part of the Weyl anomaly for chiral fermions in a background gravitational field. We start from a manifestly real form of the Lagrangian (that is, not only real up to a total derivative), and we regularize it by means of Pauli-Villars fermions. All parity-odd terms in the anomaly cancel in the integrand, so that the result of the anomaly is necessarily parity even.

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