Anomalous gauge theories with antisymmetric tensor fields

Abstract

We derive a dual theory of the four-dimensional anomalous U(1) gauge theory with a Wess--Zumino (WZ) term and with a St\"uckelberg type mass term by means of a duality transformation at each of the classical and quantum levels. It is shown that in the dual anomalous U(1) gauge theory, the $BF$ term with a rank-two antisymmetric tensor field plays the roles of the WZ term as well as the mass term of the U(1) gauge field. Similar anomalous U(1) gauge theory with $BF$ term is considered in six-dimensions by introducing a rank-four antisymmetric tensor field. In addition to this theory, we propose a six-dimensional anomalous U(1) gauge theory including an extended $BF$ term with a rank-two antisymmetric tensor field, discussing a difference between the two theories. We also consider a four-dimensional anomalous SU(2)$\times$U(1) gauge theory with $BF$ term and recognize a crucial role of the $BF$ term in cancelling the non-abelian chiral anomaly.