2025/03/27 by Ling Lin, Lin, Ling, Daniel Robbins +3
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.21862
openalex publication_date 2025/03/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate the interplay between (-1)-form symmetries and their quantum-dual (d-1)-form counterparts within the framework of Symmetry Topological Field Theories (SymTFTs). In this framework the phenomenon of decomposition -- a d-dimensional quantum field theory with (d-1)-form symmetry being the disjoint union of other theories (or ''universes'') -- arises naturally from manipulations of topological boundary conditions of the SymTFT. We corroborate our findings with various examples, including a generalization of ''instanton-restricted'' 4d Yang-Mills theories with no sum over instanton sectors. Furthermore, we construct a 3d SymTFT with a non-invertible (-1)-form symmetry. The absolute 2d quantum field theory includes a 0-form global symmetry that depends on a parameter whose value gets shifted by the action of the (-1)-form symmetry, and we show that the non-invertibility of the latter is needed to encode this modification of the 0-form symmetry.