Remote Nordic HET seminar: Yasunori Lee

Speaker: Yasunori Lee

Title: Some comments on 6d global gauge anomalies

Abstract: Given a G gauge theory, there can be global (non-perturbative) gauge transformations under which the partition function is not invariant. In 6d, relevant cases include G = SU(2), SU(3), and G2, and the old computations utilizing homotopy groups affirmed that the anomalous phases can indeed arise in all three cases. On the other hand, from the modern point of view utilizing bordism groups, there should not be such global gauge anomalies in the first place. In this talk, I will describe how this apparent conflict is resolved by carefully examining the cancellation of perturbative gauge anomalies via 6d Green-Schwarz mechanism.