Anomalies of Generalized Symmetries from Solitonic Defects

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Bhardwaj, Lakshya, Bullimore, Mathew, Ferrari, Andrea E. V., Schafer-Nameki, Sakura
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2022
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866911813579309056
author Bhardwaj, Lakshya
Bullimore, Mathew
Ferrari, Andrea E. V.
Schafer-Nameki, Sakura
author_facet Bhardwaj, Lakshya
Bullimore, Mathew
Ferrari, Andrea E. V.
Schafer-Nameki, Sakura
contents We propose the general idea that 't Hooft anomalies of generalized global symmetries can be understood in terms of the properties of solitonic defects, which generically are non-topological defects. The defining property of such defects is that they act as sources for background fields of generalized symmetries. 't Hooft anomalies arise when solitonic defects are charged under these generalized symmetries. We illustrate this idea for several kinds of anomalies in various spacetime dimensions. A systematic exploration is performed in 3d for 0-form, 1-form, and 2-group symmetries, whose 't Hooft anomalies are related to two special types of solitonic defects, namely vortex line defects and monopole operators. This analysis is supplemented with detailed computations of such anomalies in a large class of 3d gauge theories. Central to this computation is the determination of the gauge and 0-form charges of a variety of monopole operators: these involve standard gauge monopole operators, but also fractional gauge monopole operators, as well as monopole operators for 0-form symmetries. The charges of these monopole operators mainly receive contributions from Chern-Simons terms and fermions in the matter content. Along the way, we interpret the vanishing of the global gauge and ABJ anomalies, which are anomalies not captured by local anomaly polynomials, as the requirement that gauge monopole operators and mixed monopole operators for 0-form and gauge symmetries have non-fractional integer charges.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2205_15330
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anomalies of Generalized Symmetries from Solitonic Defects
Bhardwaj, Lakshya
Bullimore, Mathew
Ferrari, Andrea E. V.
Schafer-Nameki, Sakura
High Energy Physics - Theory
We propose the general idea that 't Hooft anomalies of generalized global symmetries can be understood in terms of the properties of solitonic defects, which generically are non-topological defects. The defining property of such defects is that they act as sources for background fields of generalized symmetries. 't Hooft anomalies arise when solitonic defects are charged under these generalized symmetries. We illustrate this idea for several kinds of anomalies in various spacetime dimensions. A systematic exploration is performed in 3d for 0-form, 1-form, and 2-group symmetries, whose 't Hooft anomalies are related to two special types of solitonic defects, namely vortex line defects and monopole operators. This analysis is supplemented with detailed computations of such anomalies in a large class of 3d gauge theories. Central to this computation is the determination of the gauge and 0-form charges of a variety of monopole operators: these involve standard gauge monopole operators, but also fractional gauge monopole operators, as well as monopole operators for 0-form symmetries. The charges of these monopole operators mainly receive contributions from Chern-Simons terms and fermions in the matter content. Along the way, we interpret the vanishing of the global gauge and ABJ anomalies, which are anomalies not captured by local anomaly polynomials, as the requirement that gauge monopole operators and mixed monopole operators for 0-form and gauge symmetries have non-fractional integer charges.
title Anomalies of Generalized Symmetries from Solitonic Defects
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.15330