English

Non-invertible Condensation, Duality, and Triality Defects in 3+1 Dimensions

High Energy Physics - Theory 2023-06-07 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons Quantum Algebra

Abstract

We discuss a variety of codimension-one, non-invertible topological defects in general 3+1d QFTs with a discrete one-form global symmetry. These include condensation defects from higher gauging of the one-form symmetries on a codimension-one manifold, each labeled by a discrete torsion class, and duality and triality defects from gauging in half of spacetime. The universal fusion rules between these non-invertible topological defects and the one-form symmetry surface defects are determined. Interestingly, the fusion coefficients are generally not numbers, but 2+1d TQFTs, such as invertible SPT phases, ZN\mathbb{Z}_N gauge theories, and U(1)NU(1)_N Chern-Simons theories. The associativity of these algebras over TQFT coefficients relies on nontrivial facts about 2+1d TQFTs. We further prove that some of these non-invertible symmetries are intrinsically incompatible with a trivially gapped phase, leading to nontrivial constraints on renormalization group flows. Duality and triality defects are realized in many familiar gauge theories, including free Maxwell theory, non-abelian gauge theories with orthogonal gauge groups, N=1,{\cal N}=1, and N=4{\cal N}=4 super Yang-Mills theories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2204.09025,
  title  = {Non-invertible Condensation, Duality, and Triality Defects in 3+1 Dimensions},
  author = {Yichul Choi and Clay Cordova and Po-Shen Hsin and Ho Tat Lam and Shu-Heng Shao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.09025},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

61 pages, 9 figures. v2: minor changes