Functorial QFT, Gauge Anomalies and the Dirac Determinant Bundle

Abstract

Using properties of the determinant line bundle for a family of elliptic boundary value problems, we explain how the Fock space functor defines an axiomatic quantum field theory which formally models the Fermionic path integral. The 'sewing axiom' of the theory arises as an algebraic pasting law for the determinant of the Dirac operator. We show how representations of the boundary gauge group fit into this description and that this leads to a Fock functor description of certain gauge anomalies.