Abstract
Recent work explores the candidate phases of the 4D adjoint quantum chromodynamics () with an SU(2) gauge group and two massless adjoint Weyl fermions. Both Cordova-Dumitrescu and Bi-Senthil propose possible low energy 4D topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) to saturate the higher ’t Hooft anomalies of adjoint under a renormalization-group flow from high energy. In this work, we generalize the symmetry-extension method of Wang-Wen-Witten [Phys. Rev. X 8, 031048 (2018)] to higher symmetries, and formulate a higher group cohomology and cobordism theory approach to construct higher-symmetric TQFTs. We prove that the symmetry-extension method saturates certain anomalies, but also prove that neither nor can be fully trivialized, with the background 1-form field , Pontryagin square , and 2-form field . Surprisingly, this indicates an obstruction to constructing a fully 1-form center and 0-form chiral symmetry (full discrete axial symmetry) preserving 4D TQFT with confinement, a no-go scenario via symmetry extension for specific higher anomalies. We comment on the implications and constraints on deconfined quantum criticality and ultraviolet-infrared duality in spacetime dimensions.
5 More- Received 23 January 2019
- Corrected 20 July 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.99.065013
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Corrections
20 July 2020
Correction: The end of the heading for Appendix A was inadvertently deleted during the production cycle and has been restored.