# REFERENCES

\[ \] Wang and Plerou Reply: In the preceding article , Tanaka and Machida (TM) comment on the bare values of the coupling constants in an effective field theory derived for the transport properties in the multilayer quantum Hall systems . In Ref. , the field theory was derived by bosonization of a quantum quasi-1d fermionic theory using the nonabelian chiral anomaly. The latter arises following a finite chiral transformation of Dirac fermions, and is given by the corresponding Fujikawa Jacobian . It was first pointed out by Roskies and Schaposnik , in the context of the Schwinger model, that a chiral rotation with a finite angle should be carried out by a sequence of infinitesimal rotations to produce the correct coupling constants in the anomalous terms. As correctly noted by TM, this was overlooked in Ref. . It is, however, obvious that the precise values of the bare coupling constants are totally irrelevant for the analysis of the theory in Ref. , as the latter is based on the fixed point values of the field theory in two and three dimensions.

TM then argue in their comment  that the Fujikawa Jacobian becomes zero and thus no anomaly arises when a one parameter family of infinitesimal chiral transformations is used to carry out the finite chiral rotation in the nonabelian case considered in Ref. . This claim is incorrect. Below, we will show explicitly that the correct chiral anomaly associated with the non-invariance of the fermion functional integral measure is obtained by the transformations used in Ref. . We further prove that the chiral transformation suggested by TM is equivalent to the combined unitary and chiral rotations used in Ref. .

To make connection to the comment, we will consider the case of vanishing interlayer tunneling. The fermionic quantum theory becomes that of a U(2n) Hubbard chain at half-filling. For small hopping alternations $`\delta tt`$, Eq. (5) in Ref.  can be written in terms of the Dirac spinors $`\mathrm{\Psi }^\mathrm{T}=(\psi _R,\psi _L)`$, and $`\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}=(\overline{\psi }_R,\overline{\psi }_L)\gamma _0`$,

$$S=\mathrm{Tr}\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}(𝐈\overline{)}+mQe^{2iQ\mathrm{\Delta }\theta \gamma ^5})\mathrm{\Psi }.$$
(1)   
Here, $`Q=u\mathrm{\Lambda }u^{}`$ with $`uU(2n)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}𝐈_𝐧& 0\\ 0& 𝐈_𝐧\end{array}\right),`$ $`\overline{)}=\gamma _\mu _\mu `$ with $`\gamma _0`$ and $`\gamma _1`$ given by the Pauli matrices $`\tau _x`$ and $`\tau _y`$, $`\gamma ^5=i\gamma _0\gamma _1`$, $`m=\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =\delta t/\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$.

As in Ref. , we make a unitary transformation $`\mathrm{\Psi }u\mathrm{\Psi }`$, $`\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}u^{}`$ in Eq. (1), leading to,

$$S=\mathrm{Tr}\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}(𝐈\overline{)}+i\overline{)}A+m\mathrm{\Lambda }e^{2i\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Delta }\theta \gamma ^5})\mathrm{\Psi },$$
(2)   
where the gauge field $`\overline{)}A=iu^{}\overline{)}u`$. We now carry out the sequence of infinitesmal chiral transformations parametrized by the parameter $`t[0,1]`$,

$$\mathrm{\Psi }U_5(t)\mathrm{\Psi },\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}U_5(t),$$
(3)   
with $`U_5(t)=\mathrm{exp}(it\mathrm{\Lambda }\varphi \gamma ^5)`$ and $`\varphi =(\mathrm{\Delta }\theta +\pi /4)`$. The transformed action is $`S=\mathrm{Tr}\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\overline{)}D_t\mathrm{\Psi }+\mathrm{ln}𝒥_F`$ where $`𝒥_F`$ is the corresponding Jacobian and

$$\overline{)}D_t=𝐈\overline{)}+iU_5(t)\overline{)}AU_5(t)im\gamma ^5e^{2i\mathrm{\Lambda }\varphi (t1)\gamma ^5}.$$
(4)   
The finite chiral rotation in Eq. (6) of Ref.  is built up by iterating Eq. (3). The chiral anomaly arises from the accumulated Jacobian of the transformations and is given by ,

$$\mathrm{ln}𝒥_F=\frac{1}{2\pi }_0^1𝑑t(i\varphi \mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma ^5)\overline{)}D_t^2,$$
(5)   
where the operator $`\overline{)}D_t`$ is given in Eq. (4). Eq. (5) can be evaluated straightforwardly. Using the identity, $`\mathrm{Tr}ϵ_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Lambda }_\mu A_\nu =(i/4)\mathrm{Tr}ϵ_{\mu \nu }Q_\mu Q_\nu Q`$, it leads to the topological term in the transformed action,

$$S_\theta =\frac{\sigma _{xy}^0}{8}\mathrm{Tr}ϵ_{\mu \nu }Q_\mu Q_\nu Q,$$
(6)   
where the bare coupling $`\sigma _{xy}^0=\frac{1}{2\pi }(\pi +4\mathrm{\Delta }\theta +\mathrm{sin}4\mathrm{\Delta }\theta )`$ is the same as the one obtained using nonabelian bosonization and in the comment .

TM used a seemingly different nonabelian chiral transformation, $`U_5^{}(t)=\mathrm{exp}(itQ\varphi \gamma ^5)`$, to directly bosonize Eq. (1). This leads to the transformed action $`S^{}=\mathrm{Tr}\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}\overline{)}D_t^{}\mathrm{\Psi }+\mathrm{ln}𝒥_F^{}`$ with

$$\overline{)}D_t^{}=𝐈\overline{)}+iU_5^{}(t)\overline{)}U_5^{}(t)im\gamma ^5e^{2iQ\varphi (t1)\gamma ^5},$$
(7)   
and

$$\mathrm{ln}𝒥_F^{}=\frac{1}{2\pi }_0^1𝑑t(i\varphi Q\gamma ^5)(\overline{)}D_t^{})^2.$$
(8)   
We now prove that this is equivalent to the method used in Ref.  as described above. Notice that $`U_5^{}(t)=uU_5(t)u^{}`$. It is straightforward to show that $`\overline{)}D_t^{}=u\overline{)}D_tu^{}`$. As a result, the nonabelian chiral anomaly given by the Jacobians in Eq. (5) and Eq. (8) are identical, i.e. $`\mathrm{ln}𝒥_F=\mathrm{ln}𝒥_F^{}`$. Specifically,

$$\mathrm{ln}𝒥_F=\mathrm{ln}𝒥_F^{}=\frac{\sigma _{xx}^0}{8}\mathrm{Tr}_\mu Q_\mu Q+\frac{\sigma _{xy}^0}{8}\mathrm{Tr}ϵ_{\mu \nu }Q_\mu Q_\nu Q,$$

where $`\sigma _{xx}^0=\frac{1}{2\pi }\mathrm{cos}^22\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$, and $`\sigma _{xy}^0=\frac{1}{2\pi }(\pi +4\mathrm{\Delta }\theta +\mathrm{sin}4\mathrm{\Delta }\theta )`$ is the same as the one given in Eq. (6).

Ziqiang Wang and Vasiliki Plerou   
Department of Physics   
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167