English

On gauging finite subgroups

High Energy Physics - Theory 2020-02-05 v3 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

We study in general spacetime dimension the symmetry of the theory obtained by gauging a non-anomalous finite normal Abelian subgroup AA of a Γ\Gamma-symmetric theory. Depending on how anomalous Γ\Gamma is, we find that the symmetry of the gauged theory can be i) a direct product of G=Γ/AG=\Gamma/A and a higher-form symmetry A^\hat A with a mixed anomaly, where A^\hat A is the Pontryagin dual of AA; ii) an extension of the ordinary symmetry group GG by the higher-form symmetry A^\hat A; iii) or even more esoteric types of symmetries which are no longer groups. We also discuss the relations to the effect called the H3(G,A^)H^3(G,\hat A) symmetry localization obstruction in the condensed-matter theory and to some of the constructions in the works of Kapustin-Thorngren and Wang-Wen-Witten.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.09542,
  title  = {On gauging finite subgroups},
  author = {Yuji Tachikawa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.09542},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

26 pages; v3: numerous minor improvements suggested by an anonymous referee; v2: minor improvement in Sec. 2.6.1

R2 v1 2026-06-22T23:30:03.872Z