Preregularization

Abstract

We describe and investigate the applicability of a recently proposed preregularization procedure in which arbitrary shift-of-integration-variable surface terms (in four dimensions) arising from loop-mementum ambiguities are constrained to absorb any contributions to unrenormalized Feynman amplitudes that violate Ward–Takahashi–Slavnov–Taylor (WTST) identities appropriate to the theory under consideration. Anomalies in WTST identities are shown to be the result of having insufficient arbitrariness in the loop momenta to accommodate the full set of Lagrangian symmetries. We demonstrate the utility of our procedure by analyzing the chiral anomaly in even dimensions, the supercurrent anomaly in N = 1 super Yang–Mills theory, and by calculations in quantum electrodynamics and Yang–Mills theory. We argue that the preregularization procedure should be particularly well suited to supersymmetric theories as a regularization-independent means of upholding super-WTST identities.