The axial anomaly in lattice QED. A universal point of view

We give a perturbative proof that U(1) lattice gauge theories generate the axial anomaly in the continuum limit under very general conditions on the l attice Dirac operator. These conditions are locality, gauge covariance and the absence of species doubling. They hold for Wilson fermions as well as f or realizations of the Dirac operator that satisfy the Ginsparg-Wilson rela tion. The proof is based on the lattice power counting theorem. (C) 1999 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.