English

On Unitary 2-Group Symmetries

Mathematical Physics 2025-02-07 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory Category Theory math.MP

Abstract

Global internal symmetries act unitarily on local observables or states of a quantum system. In this note, we aim to generalise this statement to extended observables by considering unitary actions of finite global 2-group symmetries G\mathcal{G} on line operators. We propose that the latter transform in unitary 2-representations of G\mathcal{G}, which we classify up to unitary equivalence. Our results recover the known classification of ordinary 2-representations of finite 2-groups, but provide additional data interpreted as a type of reflection anomaly for G\mathcal{G}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.05067,
  title  = {On Unitary 2-Group Symmetries},
  author = {Thomas Bartsch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.05067},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

36 pages, v2: citations added

R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:52:13.456Z