A method for simulating chiral fermions on the lattice

Abstract

I show that a lattice theory of massive interacting fermions in 2n + 1 dimensions may be used to simulate the behaviour of massless chiral fermions in 2n dimensions if the fermion mass has a step function shape in the extra dimension. The massless states arise as zeromodes bound to the mass defect, and all doublers can be given large gauge invariant masses. The manner in which the anomalies are realized is transparent: apparent chiral anomalies in the 2n dimensional subspace correspond to charge flow into the extra dimension.