Non-commutative differential calculus and the axial anomaly in Abelian lattice gauge theories

The axial anomaly in lattice gauge theories has a topological nature when the Dirac operator satisfies the Ginsparg-Wilson relation. We study the axial anomaly in Abelian gauge theories on an infinite hypercubic lattice by utilizing cohomological arguments. The crucial tool in our approach is the non-commutative differential calculus (NCDC) which makes the Leibniz rule of exterior derivatives valid on the lattice. The topological nature of the "Chern character" on the lattice becomes manifest in the context of NCDC. Our result provides an algebraic proof of Luscher's theorem for a four-dimensional lattice and its generalization to arbitrary dimensions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.