Yang-Mills theta term ($\theta$ term)

In four dimensions the Yang-Mills theta term is proportional to $\theta \mathrm{Tr}(F_{\mu \nu }{}^{\star }{F}^{\mu \nu })$. Its density is a total derivative, but nontrivial gauge-field topology can make its spacetime integral physically relevant in the quantum theory.

The term weights topological sectors and supplies the angle labeling a theta vacuum.

For $F=dA+A\wedge A$, the gauge-theory Bianchi identity is $DF=0$ and the variation is $\delta F=D\delta A$. The graded product rule for the covariant exterior derivative gives the displayed boundary integral. Thus a constant-coefficient Yang-Mills theta term leaves the bulk Yang-Mills equations unchanged, but can change the boundary variational condition. Its four-form density is exactly gauge-invariant by conjugation of $F$ and cyclicity of the matrix trace, even if the gauge parameter is nonzero on the boundary. Gauge changes of a local Chern-Simons 3-form must not be confused with gauge changes of this globally defined curvature density.

The color-contracted density ${ϵ}^{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }{F}_{\mu \nu }^a{F}_{\rho \sigma }^a$ is even under charge conjugation and odd under parity. In matrix form the two charge-conjugation signs cancel and transposition leaves the trace of the product unchanged. Parity contributes its orientation-reversing determinant to the four-index Levi-Civita symbol. Thus the density is CP odd. A generic fixed coefficient violates CP symmetry; being a local total derivative does not eliminate effects from nontrivial gauge topology.

The physical QCD theta angle is $\bar{\theta }={\theta }_{\mathrm{QCD}}+\arg \det (M_u{M}_d)$. An anomalous chiral quark rotation shifts the two terms oppositely, so only their sum is invariant.

The strong CP problem asks why the physical QCD theta angle is smaller than roughly $10^{-10}$ even though no Standard Model symmetry requires this small value.

Peccei–Quinn theory promotes the physical QCD theta angle to a dynamical field through an anomalous global $U(1)$ symmetry. Nonperturbative QCD drives its vacuum expectation value to a CP-conserving minimum.

The axion is the pseudo-Goldstone boson of spontaneously broken Peccei–Quinn symmetry. Its QCD-generated potential dynamically relaxes the physical theta angle toward zero.

The electroweak theta angle multiplies the $SU(2{)}_L$ topological density. In the renormalizable Standard Model it is unphysical because an anomalous baryon-plus-lepton rephasing shifts it, but explicit baryon-plus-lepton violation can make an invariant combination observable.

The Chern-Simons current satisfies ${\partial }_{\mu }{K}^{\mu }=\mathrm{Tr}(F_{\mu \nu }{}^{\star }{F}^{\mu \nu })$. It is not gauge invariant even though its divergence is.

In four dimensions this current is dual to the degree-three Chern-Simons form.