The mixed $0$-form/$1$-form anomaly in Hilbert space: pouring new wine into old bottles


Abstract in English

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 in the spectrum of the Hamiltonian at any finite-size torus. We discuss the consistency of these constraints with both older and recent semiclassical calculations in $SU(N)$ theories, with or without adjoint fermions, as well as with their conjectured infrared phases.

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