A foundational investigation of the basic structural properties of two
-dimensional anomalous gauge theories is performed. The Hilbert space
is constructed as the representation of the intrinsic local Field alge
bra generated by the fundamental set of Field operators whose Wightman
functions define the model. We examine the effect of the use of a red
undant field algebra in deriving basic properties of the models and sh
ow that different results may arise, as regards the physical propertie
s of the generalized chiral model, in restricting or not the Hilbert s
pace as a representation of the intrinsic local held algebra. The ques
tion of whether the vector Schwinger model is a limit of the generaliz
ed anomalous model is also discussed. We show that this limit can only
be consistently defined for a field subalgebra of the generalized mod
el. (C) 1998 Academic Press.