Gauge Invariant Effective Action in Abelian Chiral Gauge Theory on the Lattice

Abstract

L\"uscher's recent formulation of Abelian chiral gauge theories on the lattice, in the vacuum (or perturbative) sector in infinite volume, is reinterpreted in terms of the lattice covariant regularization. The gauge invariance of the effective action and the integrability of the gauge current in anomaly-free cases become transparent. The real part of the effective action is simply one-half that of the Dirac fermion and, when the Dirac operator behaves properly in the continuum limit, the imaginary part in this limit reproduces the $\eta$-invariant.