Fate of stringy noninvertible symmetries
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Noninvertible symmetries in quantum field theory (QFT) generalize the familiar product rule of groups to a more general fusion rule. In many cases, gauged versions of these symmetries can be regarded as dual descriptions of invertible gauge symmetries. One may ask: are there any other types of noninvertible gauge symmetries? In theories with gravity we find a new form of noninvertible gauge symmetry that emerges in the limit of fundamental, tensionless strings. These stringy noninvertible gauge symmetries appear in standard examples such as non-Abelian orbifolds. Moving away from the tensionless limit always breaks these symmetries. We also find that both the conventional form of noninvertible gauge symmetries and these stringy generalizations are realized in AdS/CFT. Although generically broken, approximate noninvertible symmetries have implications for swampland constraints: in certain cases they can be used to prove the existence of towers of states related to the distance conjecture, and can sometimes explain the existence of slightly subextremal states which fill in the gaps in the sublattice weak gravity conjecture. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Institutions: University of Pennsylvania, California Institute of Technology, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook University, Harvard University, European Organization for Nuclear Research
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Simons Foundation, University of Pennsylvania, Aspen Center for Physics, CERN, Comunidad de Madrid, United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Office of Science, European Regional Development Fund, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, High Energy Physics, H2020 European Research Council
Awards: G1099677550, G1282169449, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA THEORETICAL PROGRAM, G1622782223, G1746333638, G2163411582, G2233160401, G254583402, G2554159582, G2595738051, G282847690, G3060602361, G3259866395, G3480869486, G3804244263, G4892277352, G52340936, G638484911, G6941735741, G7084143925, Programs on Critical Problems in Physics, Astrophysics and Biophysics at the Aspen Center for Physics, RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND GOALS OF THE THEORETICAL HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS GROUP, Interactions of Particles, Fields, and Strings
OpenAlex ID: W4404040678