Abstract (Elsevier)
It is shown how the form of the gauge and gravitational anomalies in quantum field theories may be derived from classical index theorems. The gravitational anomaly in both Einstein and Lorentz form is considered and their equivalence is exhibited. The formalism of gauge and gravitational theories is reviewed using the language of differential geometry, and notions from the theory of characteristic classes necessary for understanding the classical index theorems are introduced. The treatment of known topological results includes a pedagogical derivation of the Wess-Zumino effective Lagrangian in arbitrary even dimension. The relation between various forms of the anomaly present in the literature is also clarified.