The chiral anomaly and electromagnetic pion decay in effective quark models

Abstract

Within renormalizable theories the triangle diagram correctly reproduces the lifetime of the neutral pion $π^0$. However, effective relativistic quark models which contain a second scale besides the quark mass seem unable to give the correct value for this quantity. In the Instanton Liquid Model this second scale is the mean instanton radius, in the NJL model it is the cutoff. The role of the cutoff within a path integral derivation of the chiral anomaly is clarified and the importance of higher order terms contributing to the $π^0$ decay width and other anomalous processes is pointed out.