Gauging Lie group symmetry in (2+1)d topological phases

In this paper, we explore the algebraic and geometric structures that arise from a procedure we dub "gauging the gauge", which involves the promotion of a certain global, coordinate independent symmetry to a local one. By gauging the global 1-form shift symmetry in a gauge theory, we demonstrate that the structure of a Lie algebra crossed-module and its associated 2-gauge theory arises. Moreover, performing this procedure once again on a 2-gauge theory generates a 3-gauge the...

We discuss a variety of codimension-one, non-invertible topological defects in general 3+1d QFTs with a discrete one-form global symmetry. These include condensation defects from higher gauging of the one-form symmetries on a codimension-one manifold, each labeled by a discrete torsion class, and duality and triality defects from gauging in half of spacetime. The universal fusion rules between these non-invertible topological defects and the one-form symmetry surface defects ...

We describe a method to implement finite group global and gauged $q$-form symmetries into the axiomatic structure of $d$-dimensional Topological Quantum Field Theory (TQFT) in terms of bordisms decorated by cohomology classes. Namely, on a manifold with a boundary, the gauge field is considered as a class in an appropriate relative cohomology group. It is defined in a way that allows self-consistent cutting and gluing of the manifolds and involves a choice of a $(d-q-2)$-skel...

We analyze $2+1d$ and $3+1d$ Bosonic Symmetry Protected Topological (SPT) phases of matter protected by onsite symmetry group $G$ by using dual bulk and boundary approaches. In the bulk we study an effective field theory which upon coupling to a background flat $G$ gauge field furnishes a purely topological response theory. The response action evaluated on certain manifolds, with appropriate choice of background gauge field, defines a set of SPT topological invariants. Furthe...

A large class of gapped phases of matter can be described by topological finite group gauge theories. In this paper we show how such gauge theories possess a higher-group global symmetry, which we study in detail. We derive the $d$-group global symmetry and its 't Hooft anomaly for topological finite group gauge theories in $(d+1)$ space-time dimensions, including non-Abelian gauge groups and Dijkgraaf-Witten twists. We focus on the 1-form symmetry generated by invertible (Ab...

We classify distinct types of quantum number fractionalization occurring in two-dimensional topologically ordered phases, focusing in particular on phases with Z2 topological order, that is, on gapped Z2 spin liquids. We find that the fractionalization class of each anyon is an equivalence class of projective representations of the symmetry group, corresponding to elements of the cohomology group H^2(G,Z2). This result leads us to a symmetry classification of gapped Z2 spin l...

We present a class of three-dimensional quantum field theories whose ordinary global symmetries mix with higher-form symmetries to form a continuous 2-group. All these models can be obtained by performing a gauging procedure in a parent theory revealing a 't Hooft anomaly in the space of coupling constants when suitable compact scalar background fields are activated. Furthermore, the gauging procedure also implies that our main example has infinitely many non-invertible globa...

Anomalies of global symmetries are important tools for understanding the dynamics of quantum systems. We investigate anomalies of non-invertible symmetries in 3+1d using 4+1d bulk topological quantum field theories given by Abelian two-form gauge theories, with a 0-form permutation symmetry. Gauging the 0-form symmetry gives the 4+1d "inflow" symmetry topological field theory for the non-invertible symmetry. We find a two levels of anomalies: (1) the bulk may fail to have an ...

We study four-dimensional gauge theories with arbitrary simple gauge group with $1$-form global center symmetry and $0$-form parity or discrete chiral symmetry. We canonically quantize on $\mathbb{T}^3$, in a fixed background field gauging the $1$-form symmetry. We show that the mixed $0$-form/$1$-form 't Hooft anomaly results in a central extension of the global-symmetry operator algebra. We determine this algebra in each case and show that the anomaly implies degeneracies i...

We study reductions of 6d theories on a $d$-dimensional manifold $M_d$, focusing on the interplay between symmetries, anomalies, and dynamics of the resulting $(6-d)$-dimensional theory $T[M_d]$. We refine and generalize the notion of "polarization" to "polarization on $M_d$," which serves to fix the spectrum of local and extended operators in $T[M_d]$. Another important feature of theories $T[M_d]$ is that they often possess higher-group symmetries, such as 2-group and 3-gro...