Related papers: Open-closed strings: Two-dimensional extended TQFT…
To understand what does Chern-Simons with compact Lie group(does not like Dijkgraaf-Witten model with finite group in 3d) attach to a point, we first give a construction of Topological Quantum Field Theory(TQFT) via Chern-Simons theory in…
Gauging is a powerful operation on symmetries in quantum field theory (QFT), as it connects distinct theories and also reveals hidden structures in a given theory. We initiate a systematic investigation of gauging discrete generalized…
These are lecture notes of a course given at the Summer School on Topology and Field Theories held at the Centre for Mathematics of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, from May 29 to June 2, 2012. The idea of extending quantum field…
We construct 3-dimensional once-Extended Topological Quantum Field Theories (ETQFTs for short) out of (possibly non-semisimple) modular categories, and we explicitly identify linear categories and functors in their image. The circle…
In previous work, we proposed a general framework of positive topological field theories (TFTs) based on Eilenberg's notion of summation completeness for semirings. In the present paper, we apply this framework in constructing explicitly a…
In categorified symplectic geometry, one studies the categorified algebraic and geometric structures that naturally arise on manifolds equipped with a closed nondegenerate (n+1)-form. The case relevant to classical string theory is when n=2…
In this paper, we endow the family of all closed genus $g \ge 1$ surfaces with a structure of a (co)cyclic object in the category of 3-dimensional cobordisms. As a corollary, any $3$-dimensional TQFT induces a (co)cyclic module, which we…
In this article, we concern the concept of nearly Frobenius algebra, which corresponds to most 2D-TQFT of which each cobordism admits no critical points of index 0 or 2. We prove that any nearly Frobenius algebra over a principal ideal…
In general quantum field theories (QFTs), ordinary (0-form) global symmetries and 1-form symmetries can combine into 2-group global symmetries. We describe this phenomenon in detail using the language of symmetry defects. We exhibit a…
This paper contains three related groupings of results. First, we consider a new notion of an admissible skein module of a surface associated to an ideal in a (non-semisimple) pivotal category. Second, we introduce the notion of a chromatic…
We elaborate on the construction of a prequantum 2-Hilbert space from a bundle gerbe over a 2-plectic manifold, providing the first steps in a program of higher geometric quantisation of closed strings in flux compactifications and of…
We give a simple, geometric and explicit construction of 3d untwisted Dijkgraaf-Witten theory with defects of all codimensions. It is given as a symmetric monoidal functor from a defect cobordism category into the category of…
We introduce a discrete cobordism category for nested manifolds and nested cobordisms between them. A variation of stratified Morse theory applies in this case, and yields generators for a general nested cobordism category. Restricting to a…
We discuss theories containing higher-order forms in various dimensions. We explain how Chern--Simons-type theories of forms can be defined from TQFTs in one less dimension. We also exhibit new TQFTs with interacting Yang--Mills fields and…
In this paper we give a characterization of 2-dimensional topological field theories over a space $X$ as Frobenius bundles with connections over $LX$, the free loop space of $X$. This is a generalization of the folk theorem stating that…
The object of this paper is to define a subcategory of the category of 3-cobordisms to which invariants of rational homology 3-spheres should generalize. We specify the notion of Topological Quantum Field Theory (in the sense of Atiyah) to…
The constraints of $BF$ topological gauge theories are used to construct Hamiltonians which are anti-commutators of the BRST and anti-BRST operators. Such Hamiltonians are a signature of Topological Quantum Field Theories (TQFT's). By…
Boson condensation in topological quantum field theories (TQFT) has been previously investigated through the formalism of Frobenius algebras and the use of vertex lifting coefficients. While general, this formalism is physically opaque and…
Firm Frobenius algebras are firm algebras and counital coalgebras such that the comultiplication is a bimodule map. They are investigated by categorical methods based on a study of adjunctions and lifted functors. Their categories of…
For each braided category $\mathcal{C}$ we show that, under mild hypotheses, there is an associated category of "half braided algebras" and their bimodules internal to $\mathcal{C}$ which is not only monoidal but even braided and balanced.…