Thomas Bartsch, Mathew Bullimore, Andrea E. V. Ferrari, Jamie Pearson
SciPost Phys. 17, 067 (2024) ·
published 26 August 2024
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In this paper we continue our investigation of the global categorical symmetries that arise when gauging finite higher groups and their higher subgroups with discrete torsion. The motivation is to provide a common perspective on the construction of non-invertible global symmetries in higher dimensions and a precise description of the associated symmetry categories. We propose that the symmetry categories obtained by gauging higher subgroups may be defined as higher group-theoretical fusion categories, which are built from the projective higher representations of higher groups. As concrete applications we provide a unified description of the symmetry categories of gauge theories in three and four dimensions based on the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{so}(N)$, and a fully categorical description of non-invertible symmetries obtained by gauging a 1-form symmetry with a mixed 't Hooft anomaly. We also discuss the effect of discrete torsion on symmetry categories, based a series of obstructions determined by spectral sequence arguments.
Thomas Bartsch, Mathew Bullimore, Andrea E. V. Ferrari, Jamie Pearson
SciPost Phys. 17, 015 (2024) ·
published 16 July 2024
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the global categorical symmetries that arise when gauging finite higher groups in three or more dimensions. The motivation is to provide a common perspective on constructions of non-invertible global symmetries in higher dimensions and a precise description of the associated symmetry categories. This paper focusses on gauging finite groups and split 2-groups in three dimensions. In addition to topological Wilson lines, we show that this generates a rich spectrum of topological surface defects labelled by 2-representations and explain their connection to condensation defects for Wilson lines. We derive various properties of the topological defects and show that the associated symmetry category is the fusion 2-category of 2-representations. This allows us to determine the full symmetry categories of certain gauge theories with disconnected gauge groups. A subsequent paper will examine gauging more general higher groups in higher dimensions.
