Speaker: Kenichi Konishi (UNIPI.IT)

Title: Anomalies, dynamics and phases in strongly-coupled chiral gauge theories: Recent developments

Abstract: After many years of efforts, still very little is known today about the physics of strongly-coupled chiral gauge theories in four dimensions, in spite of an important role they might play in the physics of fundamental interactions beyond the standard SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) model. This is in stark contrast with the vectorlike gauge theories for which we have many solid results, thanks to some exact theorems, to the lattice simulation studies, to the Seiberg-Witten exact solution of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories, and last, but not the least, to the real-world strong-interaction phenomenology and experimental tests of Quantum Chromodynamics.

The purpose of this seminar is to discuss the results of our recent efforts to improve the understanding of the strongly-coupled chiral gauge theories. Among the main tools of analysis are the consideration of anomalies. We use both the conventional ’t Hooft anomaly-matching ideas, and new, more stringent constraints coming from the generalized anomalies involving some higher-form symmetries. Also, the so-called strong anomalies, little considered in the context of chiral gage theories, are found to carry significant implications.

As the playground we study several classes of SU(N) gauge theories, the so-called Bars-Yankielowicz models, the generalized Georgi-Glashow models, as well as a few other simple theories with the fermions in complex, anomaly-free representations of the color SU(N).

Color-flavor-locked dynamical Higgs phase and dynamical Abelianization, emerge, among others, as two particularly interesting possible phases the system can flow into in the infrared, depending on the matter fermion content of the model.