No Arabic abstract
We formulate a family of spin Topological Quantum Filed Theories (spin-TQFTs) as fermionic generalization of bosonic Dijkgraaf-Witten TQFTs. They are obtained by gauging $G$-equivariant invertible spin-TQFTs, or, in physics language, gauging the interacting fermionic Symmetry Protected Topological states (SPTs) with a finite group $G$ symmetry. We use the fact that the latter are classified by Pontryagin duals to spin-bordism groups of the classifying space $BG$. We also consider unoriented analogues, that is $G$-equivariant invertible pin$^pm$-TQFTs (fermionic time-reversal-SPTs) and their gauging. We compute these groups for various examples of abelian $G$ using Adams spectral sequence and describe all corresponding TQFTs via certain bordism invariants in dimensions 3, 4, and other. This gives explicit formulas for the partition functions of spin-TQFTs on closed manifolds with possible extended operators inserted. The results also provide explicit classification of t Hooft anomalies of fermionic QFTs with finite abelian group symmetries in one dimension lower. We construct new anomalous boundary deconfined spin-TQFTs (surface fermionic topological orders). We explore SPT and SET (symmetry enriched topologically ordered) states, and crystalline SPTs protected by space-group (e.g. translation $mathbb{Z}$) or point-group (e.g. reflection, inversion or rotation $C_m$) symmetries, via the layer-stacking construction.
We consider general fermionic quantum field theories with a global finite group symmetry $G$, focusing on the case of 2-dimensions and torus spacetime. The modular transformation properties of the family of partition functions with different backgrounds is determined by the t Hooft anomaly of $G$ and fermion parity. For a general possibly non-abelian $G$ we provide a method to determine the modular transformations directly from the bulk 3d invertible topological quantum field theory (iTQFT) corresponding to the anomaly by inflow. We also describe a method of evaluating the character map from the real representation ring of $G$ to the group which classifies anomalies. Physically the value of the map is given by the anomaly of free fermions in a given representation. We assume classification of the anomalies/iTQFTs by spin-cobordisms. As a byproduct, for all abelian symmetry groups $G$, we provide explicit combinatorial expressions for corresponding spin-bordism invariants in terms of surgery representation of arbitrary closed spin 3-manifolds. We work out the case of $G=mathbb{Z}_2$ in detail, and, as an application, we consider the constraints that t Hooft anomaly puts on the spectrum of the infrared conformal field theory.
Recent discussions of higher rank symmetric (fractonic) gauge theories have revealed the important role of Gauss constraints. This has prompted the present study where a detailed hamiltonian analysis of such theories is presented. Besides a general treatment, the traceless scalar charge theory is considered in details. A new form for the action is given which, in 2+1 dimensions, yields area preserving diffeomorphisms. Investigation of global symmetries reveals that this diffeomorphism invariance induces a noncommuting charge algebra that gets exactly mapped to the algebra of coordinates in the lowest Landau level problem. Connections of this charge algebra to noncommutative fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics are shown.
A general method to build the entanglement renormalization (cMERA) for interacting quantum field theories is presented. We improve upon the well-known Gaussian formalism used in free theories through a class of variational non-Gaussian wavefunctionals for which expectation values of local operators can be efficiently calculated analytically and in a closed form. The method consists of a series of scale-dependent nonlinear canonical transformations on the fields of the theory under consideration. Here, the $lambda, phi^4$ and the sine-Gordon scalar theories are used to illustrate how non-perturbative effects far beyond the Gaussian approximation are obtained by considering the energy functional and the correlation functions of the theory.
A classical local cellular automaton can describe an interacting quantum field theory for fermions. We construct a simple classical automaton for a particular version of the Thirring model with imaginary coupling. This interacting fermionic quantum field theory obeys a unitary time evolution and shows all properties of quantum mechanics. Classical cellular automata with probabilistic initial conditions admit a description in the formalism of quantum mechanics. Our model exhibits interesting features as spontaneous symmetry breaking or solitons. The same model can be formulated as a generalized Ising model. This euclidean lattice model can be investigated by standard techniques of statistical physics as Monte Carlo simulations. Our model is an example how quantum mechanics emerges from classical statistics.
In this work we explore the possibility of spontaneous breaking of global symmetries at all nonzero temperatures for conformal field theories (CFTs) in $D = 4$ space-time dimensions. We show that such a symmetry-breaking indeed occurs in certain families of non-supersymmetric large $N$ gauge theories at a planar limit. We also show that this phenomenon is accompanied by the system remaining in a persistent Brout-Englert-Higgs (BEH) phase at any temperature. These analyses are motivated by the work done in arXiv:2005.03676 where symmetry-breaking was observed in all thermal states for certain CFTs in fractional dimensions. In our case, the theories demonstrating the above features have gauge groups which are specific products of $SO(N)$ in one family and $SU(N)$ in the other. Working in a perturbative regime at the $Nrightarrowinfty$ limit, we show that the beta functions in these theories yield circles of fixed points in the space of couplings. We explicitly check this structure up to two loops and then present a proof of its survival under all loop corrections. We show that under certain conditions, an interval on this circle of fixed points demonstrates both the spontaneous breaking of a global symmetry as well as a persistent BEH phase at all nonzero temperatures. The broken global symmetry is $mathbb{Z}_2$ in one family of theories and $U(1)$ in the other. The corresponding order parameters are expectation values of the determinants of bifundamental scalar fields in these theories. We characterize these symmetries as baryon-like symmetries in the respective models.