English

Factorization and global symmetries in holography

High Energy Physics - Theory 2023-02-15 v2

Abstract

We consider toy models of holography arising from 3d Chern-Simons theory. In this context a duality to an ensemble average over 2d CFTs has been recently proposed. We put forward an alternative approach in which, rather than summing over bulk geometries, one gauges a one-form global symmetry of the bulk theory. This accomplishes two tasks: it ensures that the bulk theory has no global symmetries, as expected for a theory of quantum gravity, and it makes the partition function on spacetimes with boundaries coincide with that of a modular-invariant 2d CFT on the boundary. In particular, on wormhole geometries one finds a factorized answer for the partition function. In the case of non-Abelian Chern-Simons theories, the relevant one-form symmetry is non-invertible, and its gauging corresponds to the condensation of a Lagrangian anyon.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2203.09537,
  title  = {Factorization and global symmetries in holography},
  author = {Francesco Benini and Christian Copetti and Lorenzo Di Pietro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.09537},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

72 pages, 9 figures. v2: new section 2.6 and appendix B, refs added

R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:17:33.201Z