Toric 2-group anomalies via cobordism

Joe Davighi (Physics Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland) ; Nakarin Lohitsiri (Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, Durham, U.K.) ; Arun Debray (Department of Mathematics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, U.S.A.)

2-group symmetries arise in physics when a 0-form symmetry G [0] and a 1-form symmetry H [1] intertwine, forming a generalised group-like structure. Specialising to the case where both G [0] and H [1] are compact, connected, abelian groups (i.e. tori), we analyse anomalies in such ‘toric 2-group symmetries’ using the cobordism classification. As a warm up example, we use cobordism to study various ’t Hooft anomalies (and the phases to which they are dual) in Maxwell theory defined on non-spin manifolds. For our main example, we compute the 5th spin bordism group of B|𝔾| where 𝔾 is any 2-group whose 0-form and 1-form symmetry parts are both U(1), and |𝔾| is the geometric realisation of the nerve of the 2-group 𝔾. By leveraging a variety of algebraic methods, we show that Ω 5 Spin B G / m $$ {\varOmega}_5^{\textrm{Spin}}\left(B\left|\mathbbm{G}\right|\right)\cong \mathbb{Z}/m $$ where m is the modulus of the Postnikov class for 𝔾, and we reproduce the expected physics result for anomalies in 2-group symmetries that appear in 4d QED. Moving down two dimensions, we recap that any (anomalous) U(1) global symmetry in 2d can be enhanced to a toric 2-group symmetry, before showing that its associated local anomaly reduces to at most an order 2 anomaly, when the theory is defined with a spin structure.

{
  "_oai": {
    "updated": "2023-10-24T00:37:31Z", 
    "id": "oai:repo.scoap3.org:78719", 
    "sets": [
      "JHEP"
    ]
  }, 
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        {
          "country": "Switzerland", 
          "value": "Physics Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland", 
          "organization": "University of Zurich"
        }
      ], 
      "surname": "Davighi", 
      "email": "joe.davighi@physik.uzh.ch", 
      "full_name": "Davighi, Joe", 
      "given_names": "Joe"
    }, 
    {
      "affiliations": [
        {
          "country": "UK", 
          "value": "Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, Durham, U.K.", 
          "organization": "Durham University"
        }
      ], 
      "surname": "Lohitsiri", 
      "email": "nakarin.lohitsiri@durham.ac.uk", 
      "full_name": "Lohitsiri, Nakarin", 
      "given_names": "Nakarin"
    }, 
    {
      "affiliations": [
        {
          "country": "USA", 
          "value": "Department of Mathematics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, U.S.A.", 
          "organization": "Purdue University"
        }
      ], 
      "surname": "Debray", 
      "email": "adebray@purdue.edu", 
      "full_name": "Debray, Arun", 
      "given_names": "Arun"
    }
  ], 
  "titles": [
    {
      "source": "Springer", 
      "title": "Toric 2-group anomalies via cobordism"
    }
  ], 
  "dois": [
    {
      "value": "10.1007/JHEP07(2023)019"
    }
  ], 
  "publication_info": [
    {
      "page_end": "54", 
      "journal_title": "Journal of High Energy Physics", 
      "material": "article", 
      "journal_volume": "2023", 
      "artid": "JHEP07(2023)019", 
      "year": 2023, 
      "page_start": "1", 
      "journal_issue": "7"
    }
  ], 
  "$schema": "http://repo.scoap3.org/schemas/hep.json", 
  "acquisition_source": {
    "date": "2023-10-24T00:34:37.657344", 
    "source": "Springer", 
    "method": "Springer", 
    "submission_number": "7734084a720411eea066664922b6a1d4"
  }, 
  "page_nr": [
    54
  ], 
  "license": [
    {
      "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses//by/4.0", 
      "license": "CC-BY-4.0"
    }
  ], 
  "copyright": [
    {
      "holder": "The Author(s)", 
      "year": "2023"
    }
  ], 
  "control_number": "78719", 
  "record_creation_date": "2023-07-05T00:30:03.708595", 
  "_files": [
    {
      "checksum": "md5:7e8e86e041e6c97207643f7d9df116da", 
      "filetype": "xml", 
      "bucket": "231f9173-f95d-4a2f-b19e-526a635be004", 
      "version_id": "7f76b984-25da-4ded-b358-ba8223fed9c9", 
      "key": "10.1007/JHEP07(2023)019.xml", 
      "size": 15271
    }, 
    {
      "checksum": "md5:45498763d4976bc7cff1f2cb2f448795", 
      "filetype": "pdf/a", 
      "bucket": "231f9173-f95d-4a2f-b19e-526a635be004", 
      "version_id": "a6b6084e-418e-4a63-87a6-1d26b90559c7", 
      "key": "10.1007/JHEP07(2023)019_a.pdf", 
      "size": 924915
    }
  ], 
  "collections": [
    {
      "primary": "Journal of High Energy Physics"
    }
  ], 
  "arxiv_eprints": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "hep-th", 
        "math.AT"
      ], 
      "value": "2302.12853"
    }
  ], 
  "abstracts": [
    {
      "source": "Springer", 
      "value": "2-group symmetries arise in physics when a 0-form symmetry G [0] and a 1-form symmetry H [1] intertwine, forming a generalised group-like structure. Specialising to the case where both G [0] and H [1] are compact, connected, abelian groups (i.e. tori), we analyse anomalies in such \u2018toric 2-group symmetries\u2019 using the cobordism classification. As a warm up example, we use cobordism to study various \u2019t Hooft anomalies (and the phases to which they are dual) in Maxwell theory defined on non-spin manifolds. For our main example, we compute the 5th spin bordism group of B|\ud835\udd3e| where \ud835\udd3e is any 2-group whose 0-form and 1-form symmetry parts are both U(1), and |\ud835\udd3e| is the geometric realisation of the nerve of the 2-group \ud835\udd3e. By leveraging a variety of algebraic methods, we show that   <math> <msubsup> <mi>\u03a9</mi> <mn>5</mn> <mtext>Spin</mtext> </msubsup> <mfenced> <mrow> <mi>B</mi> <mfenced> <mi>G</mi> </mfenced> </mrow> </mfenced> <mo>\u2245</mo> <mi>\u2124</mi> <mo>/</mo> <mi>m</mi> </math>  $$ {\\varOmega}_5^{\\textrm{Spin}}\\left(B\\left|\\mathbbm{G}\\right|\\right)\\cong \\mathbb{Z}/m $$  where m is the modulus of the Postnikov class for \ud835\udd3e, and we reproduce the expected physics result for anomalies in 2-group symmetries that appear in 4d QED. Moving down two dimensions, we recap that any (anomalous) U(1) global symmetry in 2d can be enhanced to a toric 2-group symmetry, before showing that its associated local anomaly reduces to at most an order 2 anomaly, when the theory is defined with a spin structure."
    }
  ], 
  "imprints": [
    {
      "date": "2023-07-03", 
      "publisher": "Springer"
    }
  ]
}
Published on:
03 July 2023
Publisher:
Springer
Published in:
Journal of High Energy Physics , Volume 2023 (2023)
Issue 7
Pages 1-54
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2023)019
arXiv:
2302.12853
Copyrights:
The Author(s)
Licence:
CC-BY-4.0

Fulltext files: