3 Lectures on Generalized Symmetries (3/3)

by Lakshya Bhardwaj (Oxford U.), Ludovic Fraser-Taliente (Oxford U.), Arthur Platschorre (Oxford U.)

Thursday 25 Jan 2024, 14:00 → 15:30 Europe/London

Zoom (virtually at King's College London)

These 3 Zoom lectures aim to provide a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to Generalized symmetries for a broad audience of high-energy physicists interested in the theory and possible application of new symmetries. It includes three 90-minute lectures scheduled for Januvery 2024 from 14:00 to 15:30 UK time, Jan 11th (Lakshya Bhardwaj on Higher-Form Symmetries and Confinement), Jan 18th (Ludovic Fraser-Taliente on Higher-Form Symmetries and Anomalies), and Jan 25th (Arthur Platschorre on Non-invertible symmetries and Axions). The lectures are based on Phys.Rept. 1051 (2024) 1-87.

Third Lecture: 25th Jan 2024
14:00-15:30 UK time (15:00-16:30 CET)

Title: Non-invertible symmetries and Axions
Speaker: Arthur Platschorre 

Abstract: The aim of this final lecture is to explain the concept of non-invertible symmetries through an illustrative and phenomenologically relevant example, the axion. In the presence of an axion-photon coupling, the continuous shift symmetry of the axion turns into a non-invertible symmetry. In general, these non-invertible symmetries imply selection rules on correlation functions in the theory. In the case of the axion, these symmetries constrain the general form of the axion-photon coupling. Furthermore, in single axion models without domain wall problems, the existence of such a symmetry constrains the allowed photon-coupling versus the mass parameter space of the axion. Finally, we note that the breaking of these non-invertible symmetries by a suitable UV embedding of the standard model could alleviate the axion domain wall problem.

For the Zoom link and more information please register.