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 angles in quantum field theory that we call symmetry angles. Unlike conventional angles whose definition depends on a choice of a path integral, symmetry angles are intrinsic parameters of a quantum field theory that depend only on its symmetries. A frequent consequence of symmetry 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 . Physically, topological Witten effects induce generalized Aharonov-Bohm effects. We show that these new angles and Witten effects can appear in many familiar field theories.
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