In theoretical physics, a mixed anomaly is an example of an anomaly: it is an effect of quantum mechanics — usually a one-loop diagram — that implies that the classically valid general covariance and gauge symmetry of a theory of general relativity combined with gauge fields and fermionic fields cannot be preserved simultaneously in the quantum theory. The adjective "mixed" usually refers to a mixture of a gravitational anomaly and gauge anomaly, but may also refer to a mixture of two different gauge groups tensored together, like the SU(2) and the U(1) of the Standard Model.