Facts of life with gamma(5)

TL;DR

This paper discusses the longstanding issues with gamma(5) in dimensional regularization in particle physics calculations and proposes ideas to improve the treatment of gamma(5) to facilitate higher order computations.

Contribution

It advocates for using an anticommuting gamma(5) and a straightforward 4-dimensional approach to handle anomalies, offering new perspectives on a controversial topic.

Findings

Supports anticommuting gamma(5) in dimensional regularization

Proposes a simple 4D treatment of hard anomalies

Provides arguments to clarify gamma(5) issues in higher order calculations

Abstract

The increasing precision of many experiments in elementary particle physics leads to continuing interest in perturbative higher order calculations in the electroweak Standard Model or extensions of it. Such calculations are of increasing complexity because more loops and/or more legs are considered. Correspondingly efficient computational methods are mandatory for many calculations. One problem which affects the feasibility of higher order calculations is the problem with gamma(5) in dimensional regularization. Since the subject thirty years after its invention is still controversial I advocate here some ideas which seem not to be common knowledge but might shed some new light on the problem. I present arguments in favor of utilizing an anticommuting gamma(5) and a simple 4-dimensional treatment of the hard anomalies.