Related papers: 2-Group Symmetries and M-Theory
We study the smooth $2$-group structure arising in the presence of quantum field theory with one-form symmetry. We acquire $2$-group structures obtained by a central extension of the zero-form symmetry by the one-form symmetry. We determine…
Studying a quantum field theory involves a choice of space-time manifold and a choice of background for any global symmetries of the theory. We argue that many more choices are possible when specifying the background. In the context of…
In this paper we continue our investigation of the global categorical symmetries that arise when gauging finite higher groups and their higher subgroups with discrete torsion. The motivation is to provide a common perspective on the…
In this work we uncover a connection that relates the 1-form and the 2-group symmetries of 5D SCFTs derived from geometric engineering methods to monodromies of the corresponding B-models via mirror symmetry. Viewing defects as branes…
We examine six-dimensional quantum field theories through the lens of higher-form global symmetries. Every Yang-Mills gauge theory in six dimensions, with field strength $f^{(2)}$, naturally gives rise to a continuous 1-form global symmetry…
Gauge theories admit a generalisation in which the gauge group is replaced by a finer algebraic structure, known as a 2-group. The first model of this type is a Topological Quantum Field Theory introduced by Yetter. We discuss a common…
In recent work N. Hitchin introduced the concept of "generalised geometry". The key feature of generalised structures is that that they can be acted on by both diffeomorphisms and 2-forms, the so-called $B$-fields. In this lecture, we give…
We investigate the possibility that a background independent quantum theory of gravity is not a theory of quantum geometry. We provide a way for global spacetime symmetries to emerge from a background independent theory without geometry. In…
We construct several examples of (2+1) dimensional N=2 supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories, whose moduli space is given by non-compact toric Calabi-Yau four-folds, which are not derivable from any (3+1) dimensional CFT. One such example is…
It is a long-standing question to extend the definition of 3-dimensional Chern-Simons theory to one which associates values to 1-manifolds with boundary and to 0-manifolds. We provide a solution in case the gauge group is a torus. We also…
In this review, we give a pedagogical introduction to a systematic framework for constructing and analyzing supersymmetric field theories on curved spacetime manifolds. The framework is based on the use of off-shell supergravity background…
We clarify certain important issues relevant for the geometric interpretation of a large class of N = 2 superconformal theories. By fully exploiting the phase structure of these theories (discovered in earlier works) we are able to clearly…
We determine generalized symmetries for 4D theories engineered via type II strings on non-supersymmetric orbifold backgrounds $\mathbb{R}^{3,1} \times \mathbb{R}^6 / \Gamma$. Probe branes detect generalized symmetries via the adjacency…
This thesis provides an introduction to the various category theory ideas employed in topological quantum field theory. These theories are viewed as symmetric monoidal functors from topological cobordism categories into the category of…
We briefly review the basics of electric-magnetic duality symmetry and their geometric interpretation in the M-theory context. Then we recall some no-go theorems that prevent a simple extension of the duality symmetry to non-Abelian gauge…
We investigate the most general gauging operations in 2+1 dimensional oriented field theories with finite symmetry groups, which correspond to gapped boundary conditions in 3+1 dimensional Dijkgraaf-Witten theory. The classification is…
We generalize the notion of an anomaly for a symmetry to a noninvertible symmetry enacted by surface operators using the framework of condensation in 2-categories. Given a multifusion 2-category, potentially with some additional levels of…
It is shown that the correct mathematical implementation of symmetry in the geometric formulation of classical field theory leads naturally beyond the concept of Lie groups and their actions on manifolds, out into the realm of Lie group…
We study space-time symmetries in scalar quantum field theory (including interacting theories) on static space-times. We first consider Euclidean quantum field theory on a static Riemannian manifold, and show that the isometry group is…
The transformation properties of a Kalb-Ramond field are those of a gauge potential. However, it is not clear what is the group structure to which these transformations are associated. In this paper, we complete a program started in…