Anomalies involving the space of couplings and the Zamolodchikov metric

Abstract

The anomaly polynomial of a theory can involve not only curvature two-forms of the flavor symmetry background but also two-forms on the space of coupling constants. As an example, we point out that there is a mixed anomaly between the R-symmetry and the topology of the space of exactly marginal couplings of class S theories. Using supersymmetry, we translate this anomaly to the Kähler class of the Zamolodchikov metric. We compare the result against a holographic computation in the large N limit. In an appendix, we explain how to obtain the bosonic components in the supergravity completion of the curvature squared terms using compatibility with the topological twist.

14 pages. v3: an author added, who pointed out a serious error in v2, resolved it, and even provided a new appendix. The main conclusions are unchanged