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Room P5.18, Mathematics Building
John Huerta, Instituto Superior Técnico
Introduction to anomalies
In physics, an "anomaly" is the failure of a classical symmetry at
the quantum level. Anomalies play a key role in assessing the
consistency of a quantum field theory, and link up with cohomology
in mathematics, a general tool by which mathematicians understand
whether a desired construction is possible. In this informal series
of talks, we aim to understand what physicists mean by an "anomaly"
and their mathematical interpretation.