English

Symmetry theta angles and topological Witten effects

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-07-04 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We introduce a large class of θ\theta angles in quantum field theory that we call symmetry θ\theta angles. Unlike conventional θ\theta angles whose definition depends on a choice of a path integral, symmetry θ\theta angles are intrinsic parameters of a quantum field theory that depend only on its symmetries. A frequent consequence of symmetry θ\theta angles is a phenomenon we call the topological Witten effect, which is a generalization of the standard Witten effect. Topological Witten effects modify which charged operators are attached to topological operators as a function of θ\theta. Physically, topological Witten effects induce generalized Aharonov-Bohm effects. We show that these new θ\theta angles and Witten effects can appear in many familiar field theories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.00220,
  title  = {Symmetry theta angles and topological Witten effects},
  author = {Shi Chen and Aleksey Cherman and Maria Neuzil},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.00220},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

82 pages, 18 figures