0000000000661336
AUTHOR
Eckehard W. Mielke
Comment on “Topological invariants, instantons, and the chiral anomaly on spaces with torsion”
In Riemann-Cartan spacetimes with torsion only its axial covector piece $A$ couples to massive Dirac fields. Using renormalization group arguments, we show that besides the familiar Riemannian term only the Pontrjagin type four-form $dA\wedge dA$ does arise additionally in the chiral anomaly, but not the Nieh-Yan term $d^\star A$, as has been claimed in a recent paper [PRD 55, 7580 (1997)].
CHIRAL ANOMALY IN ASHTEKAR'S APPROACH TO CANONICAL GRAVITY
The Dirac equation in Riemann–Cartan spacetimes with torsion is reconsidered. As is well-known, only the axial covector torsion A, a one-form, couples to massive Dirac fields. Using diagrammatic techniques, we show that besides the familiar Riemannian term only the Pontrjagin type four-form dA ∧ dA does arise additionally in the chiral anomaly, but not the Nieh–Yan term d* A, as has been claimed recently. Implications for cosmic strings in Einstein–Cartan theory as well as for Ashtekar's canonical approach to quantum gravity are discussed.