English

SymTFTs for Continuous non-Abelian Symmetries

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-12-15 v2

Abstract

Topological defects and operators give a far-reaching generalization of symmetries of quantum fields. An auxiliary topological field theory in one dimension higher than the QFT of interest, known as the SymTFT, provides a natural way for capturing such operators. This gives a new perspective on several applications of symmetries, but fails to capture continuous non-Abelian symmetries. The main aim of this work is to fill this gap. Guided by geometric engineering and holography, we recover various known features of representation theory of the non-Abelian symmetry from a SymTFT viewpoint. Central to our approach is a duality between (flat) free Yang-Mills and non-Abelian BF theories. Our results extend naturally to models without supersymmetry.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.12347,
  title  = {SymTFTs for Continuous non-Abelian Symmetries},
  author = {Federico Bonetti and Michele Del Zotto and Ruben Minasian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.12347},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

6 pages, 4 figures. v2: Published version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:53:28.435Z