Due to the presence of the chiral anomaly sphalerons with Chern-Simons number
a half (CS=1/2) are the only static configurations that allow for a fermion
level crossing in the two-dimensional Abelian-Higgs model with massless
fermions, i.e. in the absence of Yukawa interactions. In the presence of
fermion-Higgs interactions we demonstrate the existence of zero energy
solutions to the one-dimensional Dirac equation at deformed sphalerons with
CSξ =1/2. Induced level crossing due to Yukawa interactions illustrates a
non-trivial generalization of the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem and of the
equivalence between parity anomaly in odd and the chiral anomaly in even
dimensions. We discuss a subtle manifestation of this effect in the standard
electroweak theory at finite temperatures.Comment: 14 pages, Latex, NBI-HE-93-7