Consistency conditions and trace anomalies in six dimensions

Conformally invariant quantum field theories develop trace anomalies when d efined on curved backgrounds. We study again the problem of identifying all possible trace anomalies in d = 6 by studying the consistency conditions t o derive their ten independent solutions. It is known that only four of the se solutions represent true anomalies, classified as one type A anomaly, gi ven by the topological Euler density, and three type B anomalies, made up b y three independent Weyl invariants. However, we also present the explicit expressions of the remaining six trivial anomalies, namely those that can b e obtained by the Weyl variation of local functionals. The knowledge of the latter is in general necessary to disentangle the universal coefficients o f the type A and B anomalies from calculations performed on concrete models .