Axion Effective Action

Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the construction of Effective Field Theories (EFTs) in which a chiral fermion, charged under both gauge and global symmetries, is integrated out. Inspired by typical axion models, these symmetries can be spontaneously broken, and the global ones might also be anomalous. In this context, particular emphasis is laid on the derivative couplings of the Goldstone bosons to the fermions, as these lead to severe divergences and ambiguities when building the EFT. We show how to precisely solve these difficulties within the path integral formalism, by adapting the anomalous Ward identities to the EFT context. Our results are very generic, and when applied to axion models, they reproduce the non-intuitive couplings between the massive SM gauge fields and the axion. Altogether, this provides an efficient formalism, paving the way for a systematic and consistent methodology to build entire EFTs involving anomalous symmetries, as required for axion or ALP searches.