Non-invertible global symmetries and completeness of the spectrum

DOI10.1007/JHEP09(2021)203zbMATH Open1472.81232arXiv2104.07036MaRDI QIDQ2237699FDOQ2237699

Authors: Ben Heidenreich, Jacob McNamara, Miguel Montero, Matthew Reece, Tom Rudelius, Irene Valenzuela 

Publication date: 27 October 2021

Published in: Journal of High Energy Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: It is widely believed that consistent theories of quantum gravity satisfy two basic kinematic constraints: they are free from any global symmetry, and they contain a complete spectrum of gauge charges. For compact, abelian gauge groups, completeness follows from the absence of a 1-form global symmetry. However, this correspondence breaks down for more general gauge groups, where the breaking of the 1-form symmetry is insufficient to guarantee a complete spectrum. We show that the correspondence may be restored by broadening our notion of symmetry to include non-invertible topological operators, and prove that their absence is sufficient to guarantee a complete spectrum for any compact, possibly disconnected gauge group. In addition, we prove an analogous statement regarding the completeness of twist vortices: codimension-2 objects defined by a discrete holonomy around their worldvolume, such as cosmic strings in four dimensions. We discuss how this correspondence is modified in various, more general contexts, including non-compact gauge groups, Higgsing of gauge theories, and the addition of Chern-Simons terms. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for the Swampland program, as well as the phenomenological implications of the existence of twist strings.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.07036

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zbMATH Keywords

effective field theoriesgauge symmetryglobal symmetriestopological field theories

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Eta-invariants, Chern-Simons invariants (58J28) Topological field theories in quantum mechanics (81T45) Anomalies in quantum field theory (81T50) Effective quantum field theories (81T12)

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Uses Software

• MathOverflow

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