2025/09/25 by Shu-Heng Shao, Shao, Shu-Heng, Siwei Zhong +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.21279
openalex publication_date 2025/09/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study novel conformal twist defects in 4d Maxwell theory, around which electric and magnetic fields are exchanged. These are codimension-2 defects living at the end of topological defects for certain non-invertible global symmetries. We determine the operator spectrum of the twist defect by solving classical electromagnetic wave equations subject to a twisted boundary condition. Using techniques from defect CFT, we show that correlation functions of these defect operators factorize into two sectors: a universal generalized free-field sector, and a chiral current sector analogous to edge modes in Chern-Simons theory. In a similar setup, we also revisit the twist fields attached to non-invertible line defects in the 2d compact boson CFT. We discuss a defect 't Hooft anomaly involving a chiral O(2) symmetry, highlighting its dynamical implications.