Comments on one-form global symmetries and their gauging in 3d and 4d

Authors: Po-Shen Hsin, Ho Tat Lam, Nathan Seiberg - SciPost Physics 2019 cited by 222

We study 3d and 4d systems with a one-form global symmetry, explore their consequences, and analyze their gauging. For simplicity, we focus on \mathbb{Z}_N ℤ N one-form symmetries. A 3d topological quantum field theory (TQFT) \mathcal{T} 𝒯 with such a symmetry has N N special lines that generate it. The braiding of these lines and their spins are characterized by a single integer p p modulo 2N 2 N . Surprisingly, if \gcd(N,p)=1 gcd ( N , p ) = 1 the TQFT factorizes \mathcal{T}=\mathcal{T}'\otimes \mathcal{A}^{N,p} 𝒯 = 𝒯 ′ ⊗ 𝒜 N , p . Here \mathcal{T}' 𝒯 ′ is a decoupled TQFT, whose lines are neutral under the global symmetry and \mathcal{A}^{N,p} 𝒜 N , p is a minimal TQFT with the \mathbb{Z}_N ℤ N one-form symmetry of label p p . The parameter p p labels the obstruction to gauging the \mathbb{Z}_N ℤ N one-form symmetry; i.e. it characterizes the ’t Hooft anomaly of the global symmetry. When p=0 p = 0 mod