Hofman, Diego and Iqbal, Nabil (2019) 'Goldstone modes and photonization for higher form symmetries.', SciPost physics., 6 (1). 006.
Abstract
We discuss generalized global symmetries and their breaking. We extend Goldstone’s theorem to higher form symmetries by showing that a perimeter law for an extended p-dimensional defect operator charged under a continuous p-form generalized global symmetry necessarily results in a gapless mode in the spectrum. We also show that a p-form symmetry in a conformal theory in 2(p + 1) dimensions has a free realization. In four dimensions this means any 1-form symmetry in a CF T4 can be realized by free Maxwell electrodynamics, i.e. the current can be photonized. The theory has infinitely many conserved 0-form charges that are constructed by integrating the symmetry currents against suitable 1-forms. We study these charges by developing a twistor-based formalism that is a 4d analogue of the usual holomorphic complex analysis familiar in CF T2. The charges are shown to obey an algebra with central extension, which is an analogue of the 2d Abelian Kac-Moody algebra for higher form symmetries.
Item Type: | Article |
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Full text: | (VoR) Version of Record Available under License - Creative Commons Attribution. Download PDF (358Kb) |
Status: | Peer-reviewed |
Publisher Web site: | https://doi.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.6.1.006 |
Publisher statement: | Copyright D.M. Hofman and N. Iqbal. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
Date accepted: | 08 January 2019 |
Date deposited: | 20 February 2019 |
Date of first online publication: | 14 January 2019 |
Date first made open access: | 20 February 2019 |
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