Chern-Simons Forms and the Quantum Anomaly

Nicholas Harshman

Differential forms are a very convenient way to express quantum gauge fields, and likewise the curvature constructed by their field-strength, without index notation. But their real power comes in part from the fact that they describe these objects on a more or less arbitrary spacetime manifold without ever needing to mention a metric tensor. We will briefly describe how this works, then move on to show that we can describe the quantum chiral anomaly using Chern-Simons forms and the Pontrjagan classes as tools for its calculation.

To participate in this event virtually via Zoom, go to https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/99570315915.