Topological terms and anomaly matching in effective field theories on R3 × S1. Part I. Abelian symmetries and intermediate scales

Abstract

We explicitly calculate the topological terms that arise in IR effective field theories for SU(N) gauge theories on R3 × S1 by integrating out all but the lightest modes. We then show how these terms match all global-symmetry ’t Hooft anomalies of the UV description. We limit our discussion to theories with abelian 0-form symmetries, namely those with one flavour of adjoint Weyl fermion and one or zero flavours of Dirac fermions. While anomaly matching holds as required, it takes a different form than previously thought. For example, cubic- and mixed-U(1) anomalies are matched by local background-field-dependent topological terms (background TQFTs) instead of chirallagrangian Wess-Zumino terms. We also describe the coupling of 0-form and 1-form symmetry backgrounds in the magnetic dual of super-Yang-Mills theory in a novel way, valid throughout the RG flow and consistent with the monopole-instanton ’t Hooft vertices. We use it to discuss the matching of the mixed chiral-center anomaly in the magnetic dual.