We review the properties of orbifold operations on two-dimensional quantum field theories, either bosonic or fermionic, and describe the "Orbifold groupoids" which control the composition of orbifold operations. Three-dimensional TQFT's of Dijkgraaf-Witten type will play an important role in the analysis. We briefly discuss the extension to generalized symmetries and applications to constrain RG flows.
We investigate gauge anomalies in the context of orbifold conformal field theories. Such anomalies manifest as failures of modular invariance in the constituents of the orbifold partition function. We review how this irregularity is classified by cohomology and how extending the orbifold group can remove it. Working with such extensions requires an understanding of the consistent ways in which extending groups can act on the twisted states of the original symmetry, which leads us to a discrete-torsion like choice that exists in orbifolds with trivially-acting subgroups. We review a general met…
We discuss some basic problems and conjectures in a program to construct general orbifold conformal field theories using the representation theory of vertex operator algebras. We first review a program to construct conformal field theories. We also clarify some misunderstandings on vertex operator algebras, modular functors and intertwining operator algebras. Then we discuss some basic open problems and conjectures in mathematical orbifold conformal field theory. Generalized twisted modules and their variants, their constructions and some existence results are reviewed. Twisted intertwining op…
We consider two dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(4,4)$ superconformal field theories in the moduli space of symmetric orbifolds of K3. We complete a classification of the discrete groups of symmetries of these models, conditional to a series of assumptions and with certain restrictions. Furthermore, we provide a partial classification of the set of twining genera, encoding the action of a discrete symmetry $g$ on a space of supersymmetric states in these models. These results suggest the existence of a number of surprising identities between seemingly different Borcherds products, representing Siegel…
The groupoids description of Schwinger's picture of quantum mechanics is continued by discussing the closely related notions of composition of systems, subsystems, and their independence. Physical subsystems have a neat algebraic description as subgroupoids of the Schwinger's groupoid of the system. The groupoids picture offers two natural notions of composition of systems: Direct and free products of groupoids, that will be analyzed in depth as well as their universal character. Finally, the notion of independence of subsystems will be reviewed, finding that the usual notion of independence, …
Centre for Quantum Information and Foundations, DAMTP, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge(剑桥大学);Department of Mathematics, Univ. Carlos III de Madrid(马德里卡洛斯三世大学);ICMAT(数学联合研究所)
We review work on `decomposition,' a property of two-dimensional theories with 1-form symmetries and, more generally, d-dimensional theories with (d-1)-form symmetries. Decomposition is the observation that such quantum field theories are equivalent to (`decompose into') disjoint unions of other QFTs, known in this context as "universes." Examples include two-dimensional gauge theories and orbifolds with matter invariant under a subgroup of the gauge group. Decomposition explains and relates several physical properties of these theories -- for example, restrictions on allowed instantons arise …