Conformal anomalies in 6d 4-derivative theories: a heat-kernel analysis

Abstract

We compute the conformal anomalies for some higher-derivative (non-unitary) 6d Weyl invariant theories using the heat-kernel expansion in the background-field method. To this aim we obtain the general expression for the Seeley-DeWitt coefficient $b_6$ for four-derivative differential operators with background curved geometry and gauge fields, which was known only in flat space so far. We consider four-derivative scalars and abelian vectors as well as three-derivative fermions, confirming the result of the literature obtained via indirect methods. We generalise the vector case by including the curvature coupling $FF\mathrm{Weyl}$.

v2: typos corrected, references added

References in corpus (2)

• xPerm: fast index canonicalization for tensor computer algebra
• One-loop divergences in 6D, N=(1,0) SYM theory

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Six-dimensional one-loop divergences in quantum gravity from the $\mathcal{N}=4$ spinning particle
• Six-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(2,0)$ Conformal Superspace