Fractional fermion number and Hall conductivity of domain walls

Abstract

In this letter the fractional fermion number of thick domain walls is computed. The analysis is achieved by developing the heat kernel expansion of the spectral eta function of the Dirac Hamiltonian governing the fermionic fluctuations around the domain wall. A formula is derived showing that a non null fermion number is always accompanied by a Hall conductivity induced on the wall. In the limit of thin and impenetrable walls the chiral bag boundary conditions arise, and the Hall conductivity is computed for this case as well.