Note on anomalous currents for a free theory

Abstract: Recently it is found that, due to Weyl anomaly, an external magnetic field can induce anomalous currents near a boundary. In this note, we study anomalous currents for complex scalars and Dirac fields in general dimensions. We develop a perturbation method to calculate Green's function in the spacetime with boundaries. By applying this method, we obtain anomalous currents up to the linear order of magnetic fields in a half space and in a strip. To the best of our knowledge, the results for Dirac fermions and for strips are new. It is remarkable that, unlike the scalars and holographic BCFT, the anomalous currents of Dirac fields are independent of boundary conditions in general dimensions. Besides, the currents of Dirac fields are always larger than those of complex scalars. Finally, we find an exact formal expression of the anomalous current in a half space. The result is expressed in momentum integrals, which can be evaluated numerically. We find that the mass suppresses the anomalous currents as expected.