Chern-Simons terms from thermal circles and anomalies

We compute the full contribution of flavor and (or) Lorentz anomalies to the thermodynamic partition function. Apart from the Wess-Zumino consistency condition the Euclidean generating function must satisfy an extra requirement which we refer to as `consistency with the Euclidean vacuum. The latter requirement fixes all Chern-Simons terms that arise in a particular Kaluza-Klein reduction of the theory. The solution to both conditions may be encoded in a `thermal anomaly polynomial which we compute. Our construction fixes all the thermodynamic response parameters of a hydrodynamic theory associated with anomalies.

Anomaly inflow and thermal equilibrium

Using the anomaly inflow mechanism, we compute the flavor/Lorentz non-invariant contribution to the partition function in a background with a U(1) isometry. This contribution is a local functional of the background fields. By identifying the U(1) isometry with Euclidean time we obtain a contribution of the anomaly to the thermodynamic partition function from which hydrostatic correlators can be efficiently computed. Our result is in line with, and an extension of, previous studies on the role of anomalies in a hydrodynamic setting. Along the way we find simplified expressions for Bardeen-Zumino polynomials and various transgression formulae

Towards a holographic marginal Fermi liquid

We present an infinite class of 2+1 dimensional field theories which, after coupling to semi-holographic fermions, exhibit strange metallic behavior in a suitable large $N$ limit. These theories describe lattices of hypermultiplet defects interacting with parity-preserving supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories with $U(N) times U(N)$ gauge groups at levels $pm k$. They have dual gravitational descriptions in terms of lattices of probe M2 branes in $AdS_4 times S^7/Z_k$ (for $N gg 1, N gg k^5$) or probe D2 branes in $AdS_4 times CP^3$ (for $N gg k gg 1, N ll k^5$). We discuss several challenges one faces in maintaining the success of these models at finite $N$, including backreaction of the probes in the gravity solutions and radiative corrections in the weakly coupled field theory limit.