Consistency conditions and trace anomalies in sixdimensions

Abstract

Conformally invariant quantum field theories develop trace anomalieswhen defined on curved backgrounds. We study again the problem ofidentifying all possible trace anomalies in d = 6 by studying theconsistency conditions to derive their ten independent solutions. It isknown that only four of these solutions represent true anomalies, classifiedas one type A anomaly, given by the topological Euler density, and threetype B anomalies, made up by three independent Weyl invariants. However,we also present the explicit expressions of the remaining six trivialanomalies, namely those that can be obtained by the Weyl variation oflocal functionals. The knowledge of the latter is in general necessary todisentangle the universal coefficients of the type A and B anomalies fromcalculations performed on concrete models.