Topological fermion condensates from anomalies

Abstract

We show that a class of fermion theory formulated on a compact, curved manifold will generate a condensate whose magnitude is determined only by the volume and Euler characteristic of the space. The construction requires that the fermions be treated as Kähler-Dirac fields and the condensate arises from an anomaly associated with a U(1) global symmetry which is subsequently broken to a discrete subgroup. Remarkably the anomaly survives under discretization of the space which allows us to compute the condensate on an arbitrary triangulation. The results, being topological in character, should hold in a wide range of gravitationally coupled fermion theories both classical and quantum.