Evgeny Shaverin

We argue that there is an obstruction to placing theories with 't Hooft anomalies on manifolds with a boundary, unless the symmetry associated with the anomaly can be represented as a non-invariance under an Abelian transformation. For a two dimensional conformal field theory we further demonstrate that all anomalies except the usual trace anomaly are incompatible on a manifold with a boundary. Our findings extend a known result whereby, under mild assumptions, Lagrangian theories with chiral matter cannot be canonically quantized.

We consider a gas of free chiral fermions trapped inside a uniform rotating spherical shell. Once the shell becomes transparent the fermions are emitted along the axis of rotation due to the chiral and mixed anomaly. In return, owing to momentum conservation, the shell is propelled forward. We study the dependence of the magnitude of this effect on the shell parameters in a controlled setting and find that it is sensitive to the formation of an ergosphere around the rotating shell. A brief discussion on a possible relation to pulsar kicks is provided.