turkmath.org

[Note: This is a two part seminar talk: Morning session: 10:30-12:00; Afternoon session: 13:30-15:00]

Anomalies are a general feature of quantum field theories with symmetries. In this presentation I will discuss the special class of theories which are invariant under the conformal group, Conformal Field Theories. I will start with a discussion of general aspects and properties of these theories, which are consequences of their symmetry. We will then see that as a result of quantization, some symmetries of the classical theory are violated. This is the conformal anomaly. The explicit form of the violation can be formulated as a cohomology problem. Finally I will discuss the concept of anomaly matching in the context of the conformal anomaly.