Renormalization of the Topological Charge in Yang-Mills Theory

Abstract

The conditions leading to a nontrivial renormalization of the topological charge in four--dimensional Yang--Mills theory are discussed. It is shown that if the topological term is regarded as the limit of a certain nontopological interaction, quantum effects due to the gauge bosons lead to a finite multiplicative renormalization of the theta--parameter while fermions give rise to an additional shift of theta. A truncated form of an exact renormalization group equation is used to study the scale dependence of the theta--parameter. Possible implications for the strong CP--problem of QCD are discussed.