Making Sense of Singular Gauge Transformations in 1+1 and 2+1 Fermion Models

We study the problem of decoupling fermion fields in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions, in interaction with a gauge field, by performing local transformations of the fermions in the functional integral. This could always be done if singular (large) gauge transformations were allowed, since any gauge field configuration may be represented as a singular pure gauge field. However, the effect of a singular gauge transformation of the fermions is equivalent to the one of a regular transformation with a non-trivial action on the spinorial indices. For example, in the two dimensional case, singular gauge transformations lead naturally to chiral transformations, and hence to the usual decoupling mechanism based on Fujikawa Jacobians. In 2+1 dimensions, using the same procedure, different transformations emerge, which also give rise to Fujikawa Jacobians. We apply this idea to obtain the v.e.v of the fermionic current in a background field, in terms of the Jacobian for an infinitesimal decoupling transformation, finding the parity violating result.Comment: 14 pages, Late

Categorical notions of fibration

Fibrations over a category $B$, introduced to category theory by Grothendieck, encode pseudo-functors $B^{op} \rightsquigarrow {\bf Cat}$, while the special case of discrete fibrations encode presheaves $B^{op} \to {\bf Set}$. A two-sided discrete variation encodes functors $B^{op} \times A \to {\bf Set}$, which are also known as profunctors from $A$ to $B$. By work of Street, all of these fibration notions can be defined internally to an arbitrary 2-category or bicategory. While the two-sided discrete fibrations model profunctors internally to ${\bf Cat}$, unexpectedly, the dual two-sided codiscrete cofibrations are necessary to model $\cal V$-profunctors internally to $\cal V$-$\bf Cat$.Comment: These notes were initially written by the second-named author to accompany a talk given in the Algebraic Topology and Category Theory Proseminar in the fall of 2010 at the University of Chicago. A few years later, the now first-named author joined to expand and improve in minor ways the exposition. To appear on "Expositiones Mathematicae

t-structures are normal torsion theories

We characterize $t$-structures in stable $\infty$-categories as suitable quasicategorical factorization systems. More precisely we show that a $t$-structure $\mathfrak{t}$ on a stable $\infty$-category $\mathbf{C}$ is equivalent to a normal torsion theory $\mathbb{F}$ on $\mathbf{C}$, i.e. to a factorization system $\mathbb{F}=(\mathcal{E},\mathcal{M})$ where both classes satisfy the 3-for-2 cancellation property, and a certain compatibility with pullbacks/pushouts.Comment: Minor typographical corrections from v1; 25 pages; to appear in "Applied Categorical Structures

Interacting fermions and domain wall defects in 2+1 dimensions

We consider a Dirac field in 2+1 dimensions with a domain wall like defect in its mass, minimally coupled to a dynamical Abelian vector field. The mass of the fermionic field is assumed to have just one linear domain wall, which is externally fixed and unaffected by the dynamics. We show that, under some general conditions on the parameters, the localized zero modes predicted by the Callan and Harvey mechanism are stable under the electromagnetic interaction of the fermions

Tunneling between fermionic vacua and the overlap formalism

The probability amplitude for tunneling between the Dirac vacua corresponding to different signs of a parity breaking fermionic mass $M$ in $2+1$ dimensions is studied, making contact with the continuum overlap formulation for chiral determinants. It is shown that the transition probability in the limit when $M \to \infty$ corresponds, via the overlap formalism, to the squared modulus of a chiral determinant in two Euclidean dimensions. The transition probabilities corresponding to two particular examples: fermions on a torus with twisted boundary conditions, and fermions on a disk in the presence of an external constant magnetic field are evaluated.Comment: Reference added. 12 pages, LateX, no figure