Related papers: Universal manifold pairings and positivity
We present a state sum construction of two-dimensional extended Topological Quantum Field Theories (TQFTs), so-called open-closed TQFTs, which generalizes the state sum of Fukuma--Hosono--Kawai from triangulations of conventional…
We present commuting projector Hamiltonian realizations of a large class of (3+1)D topological models based on mathematical objects called unitary G-crossed braided fusion categories. This construction comes with a wealth of examples from…
We develop the general theory for the construction of Extended Topological Quantum Field Theories (ETQFTs) associated with the Costantino-Geer-Patureau quantum invariants of closed 3-manifolds. In order to do so, we introduce relative…
We present a class of three-dimensional quantum field theories whose ordinary global symmetries mix with higher-form symmetries to form a continuous 2-group. All these models can be obtained by performing a gauging procedure in a parent…
Topological duality defects arise as codimension one generalized symmetry operators in quantum field theories (QFTs) with a duality symmetry. Recent investigations have shown that in the case of 4D $\mathcal{N} = 4$ Super Yang-Mills (SYM)…
We introduce a generalization of the set of completely positive matrices that we call "pairwise completely positive" (PCP) matrices. These are pairs of matrices that share a joint decomposition so that one of them is necessarily positive…
Conformal field theories (CFTs) with $U(m)\times U(n)$ global symmetry in $d=3$ dimensions have been studied for years due to their potential relevance to the chiral phase transition of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In this work such CFTs…
The two-category with three-manifolds as objects, h-cobordisms as morphisms, and diffeomorphisms of these as two-morphisms, is extremely rich; from the point of view of classical physics it defines a nontrivial topological model for general…
Short-range entangled topological phases of matter are closely connected to Topological Quantum Field Theory. We use this connection to classify bosonic Symmetry Protected Topological Phases in low dimensions, including the case when the…
These notes offer a lightening introduction to topological quantum field theory in its functorial axiomatisation, assuming no or little prior exposure. We lay some emphasis on the connection between the path integral motivation and the…
We introduce a framework to prove integral rigidity results for the Seiberg-Witten invariants of a closed $4$-manifold $X$ containing a non-separating hypersurface $Y$ satisfying suitable (chain-level) Floer theoretic conditions. As a…
We propose quantum gravitational constraints on effective four-dimensional theories with N=1 supersymmetry. These Swampland constraints arise by demanding consistency of the worldsheet theory of a class of axionic, or EFT, strings whose…
A 3d generally covariant field theory having some unusual properties is described. The theory has a degenerate 3-metric which effectively makes it a 2d field theory in disguise. For 2-manifolds without boundary, it has an infinite number of…
If $X$ is a closed $2n$-dimensional aspherical manifold, i.e., the universal cover of $X$ is contractible, then the Chern-Hopf-Thurston conjecture predicts that $(-1)^n\chi(X)\geq 0$. We prove this conjecture when $X$ is a complex…
Topological quantum field theory (TQFT) is a powerful tool to describe homologies, which normally involve complexes and a variety of maps/morphisms, what makes a functional integration approach with a sum over a single kind of maps…
We study a model of 3d gravity relevant to the open sector of a CFT ensemble. The quantum theory is the open Virasoro TQFT, obtained by restricting the full open-closed Virasoro TQFT to a subclass of admissible manifolds. We show that it…
We point out that quantum field theories based on the concept of Clifford space and Clifford algebra valued-fields involve both positive and negative energies. This is a consequence of the indefinite signature (p,q) of the Clifford space.…
Global symmetry anomalies of a quantum field theory (QFT) can be packaged as specific couplings of a higher-dimensional symmetry theory (SymTh). In this work we show that for 5D superconformal field theories (SCFTs) engineered from M-theory…
Quantum mechanical operators and quantum fields are interpreted as realizations of timespace manifolds. Such causal manifolds are parametrized by the classes of the positive unitary operations in all complex operations, i.e. by the…
We construct a category $\mathrm{HomCob}$ whose objects are {\it homotopically 1-finitely generated} topological spaces, and whose morphisms are {\it cofibrant cospans}. Given a manifold submanifold pair $(M,A)$, we prove that there exists…