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UMN High Energy Theory Seminars
Generalized Symmetries and Gauge Theory Multiverses: An Introduction to Decomposition
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America/Chicago
Description
In this talk, I will outline higher-form symmetries in quantum field theories, focusing on local d-dimensional theories with (d-1)-form symmetries. Such theories are equivalent to disjoint unions of quantum field theories, and frequently exhibit consistent instanton truncations, naively violating Weinberg's old postulate.
This equivalence is known as 'decomposition', with the constituent subtheories (analogous to but distinct from superselection sectors) known as universes. I will outline some basic examples and applications, including to consistent anomaly restriction, as well as recent results involving continuous families of universes.