English
Related papers

Related papers: Line Defect Quantum Numbers & Anomalies

200 papers

Geometric engineering is a collection of tools developed to establish dictionaries between local singularities in string theory and (supersymmetric) quantum fields. Extended operators and defects, as well as their higher quantum numbers…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2024-07-31 Michele Del Zotto , Shani Nadir Meynet , Robert Moscrop

We study non-abelian gauge theories with fermions in a representation such that the surviving electric 1-form symmetry is $\mathbb{Z}_2$. This includes $SU(N)$ gauge theories with matter in the (anti)symmetric and $N$ even, and $USp(2N)$…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2023-09-18 Riccardo Argurio , Romain Vandepopeliere

We consider topological defect lines (TDLs) in two-dimensional conformal field theories. Generalizing and encompassing both global symmetries and Verlinde lines, TDLs together with their attached defect operators provide models of fusion…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2019-01-30 Chi-Ming Chang , Ying-Hsuan Lin , Shu-Heng Shao , Yifan Wang , Xi Yin

An 't Hooft anomaly is the obstruction for gauging symmetries, and it constrains possible low-energy behaviors of quantum field theories by excluding trivial infrared theories. Global inconsistency condition is recently proposed as a milder…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2017-12-04 Yuta Kikuchi , Yuya Tanizaki

Symmetry breaking of continuous symmetries by extended dynamical defects entails the existence of defect families, which form conformal manifolds in a critical setup. In the presence of bulk 't Hooft anomalies, defects are in fact required…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2026-01-15 Christian Copetti

We show that certain global anomalies can be detected in an elementary fashion by analyzing the way the symmetry algebra is realized on the torus Hilbert space of the anomalous theory. Distinct anomalous behaviours imprinted in the Hilbert…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2025-02-27 Diego Delmastro , Davide Gaiotto , Jaume Gomis

A global symmetry of a quantum field theory is said to have an 't Hooft anomaly if it cannot be promoted to a local symmetry of a gauged theory. In this paper, we show that the anomaly is also an obstruction to defining symmetric boundary…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2023-02-22 Ryan Thorngren , Yifan Wang

The study of quantum impurities has long been a central and inspiring theme in quantum many-body physics. Localized impurities are modeled by line defects in quantum field theory. We describe a line defect in Liouville CFT realized as a…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2026-03-03 Ahmed I. Abdalla , Jeevan Chandra , Yifan Wang

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…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-05-12 Clay Cordova , Thomas T. Dumitrescu , Kenneth Intriligator

We hypothesize a new and more complete set of anomalies of certain quantum field theories (QFTs) and then give an eclectic verification. First, we propose a set of 't Hooft higher anomalies of 4d time-reversal symmetric pure…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2020-02-10 Zheyan Wan , Juven Wang , Yunqin Zheng

We investigate fractionalization of non-invertible symmetry in (2+1)D topological orders. We focus on coset non-invertible symmetries obtained by gauging non-normal subgroups of invertible $0$-form symmetries. These symmetries can arise as…

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Physics 2025-05-09 Po-Shen Hsin , Ryohei Kobayashi , Carolyn Zhang

We consider 't Hooft anomalies of four-dimensional gauge theories whose fermion matter content admits $Spin_G(4)$ generalized spin structure, with $G$ either gauged or a global symmetry. We discuss methods to directly compute $w_2\cup w_3$…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2024-06-18 T. Daniel Brennan , Kenneth Intriligator

I review some recent results on understanding the physics of metals in an exact non-perturbative way through the powerful field-theoretic concepts of emergent symmetries and 't Hooft anomalies. A 't Hooft anomaly is a discrete topological…

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Physics 2025-02-28 Dominic V. Else

Symmetries corresponding to local transformations of the fundamental fields that leave the action invariant give rise to (invertible) topological defects, which obey group-like fusion rules. One can construct more general (codimension-one)…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2023-11-14 Pierluigi Niro , Konstantinos Roumpedakis , Orr Sela

We examine the interplay of symmetry and topological order in $2+1$ dimensional topological phases of matter. We present a definition of the \it topological symmetry \rm group, which characterizes the symmetry of the emergent topological…

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Physics 2019-10-16 Maissam Barkeshli , Parsa Bonderson , Meng Cheng , Zhenghan Wang

We classify symmetry fractionalization and anomalies in a (3+1)d U(1) gauge theory enriched by a global symmetry group $G$. We find that, in general, a symmetry-enrichment pattern is specified by 4 pieces of data: $\rho$, a map from $G$ to…

Strongly Correlated Electrons · Physics 2020-10-14 Shang-Qiang Ning , Liujun Zou , Meng Cheng

We study 't Hooft anomalies for a global discrete internal symmetry G. We construct examples of bosonic field theories in three dimensions with a non-vanishing 't Hooft anomaly for a discrete global symmetry. We also construct field…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2014-06-18 Anton Kapustin , Ryan Thorngren

We develop a general framework for the description of anomalies using extended functorial field theories extending previous work by Freed and Monnier. In this framework, anomalies are described by invertible field theories in one dimension…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2020-03-19 Lukas Müller

We study 3d and 4d systems with a one-form global symmetry, explore their consequences, and analyze their gauging. For simplicity, we focus on $\mathbb{Z}_N$ one-form symmetries. A 3d topological quantum field theory (TQFT) $\mathcal{T}$…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2019-04-02 Po-Shen Hsin , Ho Tat Lam , Nathan Seiberg

We investigate the symmetry structure of five-dimensional Yang-Mills theories with $\mathfrak{su}(N)$ gauge algebra. These theories feature intertwined 0-, 1-, and 2-form symmetries, depending on the global variant one is considering. In…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2026-02-23 Matteo Bertolini , Lorenzo Di Pietro , Stefano C. Lanza , Pierluigi Niro , Antonio Santaniello