Conformal Anomalies and the Gravitational Effective Action: The $TJJ$ Correlator for a Dirac Fermion

Abstract

We compute in linearized gravity all the contributions to the gravitational effective action due to a virtual Dirac fermion, related to the conformal anomaly. This requires, in perturbation theory, the identification of the gauge-gauge-graviton vertex off mass shell, involving the correlator of the energy-momentum tensor and two vector currents ($TJJ$), which is responsible for the generation of the gauge contributions to the conformal anomaly in gravity. We also present the anomalous effective action in the inverse mass of the fermion as in the Euler-Heisenberg case.

47 pages, 1 figure. Revised final version, contains 1 additional section. Accepted for pubblication on Phys. Rev. D