Nonperturbative results for the mass dependence of the QED fermion determinant

Abstract

The fermion determinant in four-dimensional quantum electrodynamics in the presence of $O(2)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}O(3)$ symmetric background gauge fields with a nonvanishing global chiral anomaly is considered. It is shown that the leading mass singularity of the determinant's nonperturbative part is fixed by the anomaly. It is also shown that for a large class of such fields there is at least one value of the fermion mass at which the determinant's nonperturbative part reduces to its noninteracting value.