English

Non-invertible Time-reversal Symmetry

High Energy Physics - Theory 2023-04-12 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

In gauge theory, it is commonly stated that time-reversal symmetry only exists at θ=0\theta=0 or π\pi for a 2π2\pi-periodic θ\theta-angle. In this paper, we point out that in both the free Maxwell theory and massive QED, there is a non-invertible time-reversal symmetry at every rational θ\theta-angle, i.e., θ=πp/N\theta= \pi p/N. The non-invertible time-reversal symmetry is implemented by a conserved, anti-linear operator without an inverse. It is a composition of the naive time-reversal transformation and a fractional quantum Hall state. We also find similar non-invertible time-reversal symmetries in non-Abelian gauge theories, including the N=4\mathcal{N}=4 SU(2)SU(2) super Yang-Mills theory along the locus τ=1|\tau|=1 on the conformal manifold.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2208.04331,
  title  = {Non-invertible Time-reversal Symmetry},
  author = {Yichul Choi and Ho Tat Lam and Shu-Heng Shao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.04331},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

30 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-25T01:34:37.748Z