Emmy-Noether-Seminar: Generalized Symmetries and Anomalies in Quantum Field Theory and Quantum Gravity

Generalized Symmetries and Anomalies in Quantum Field Theory and Quantum Gravity

Markus Dierigl (München)

Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the relevance of generalized symmetries and anomalies in the investigation and classification of Quantum Field Theories. In their modern formulation they are implemented by the action of topological symmetry operators and the prescription of how to combine them. Once the theory is coupled to gravity global symmetries, including their generalized versions, must be absent, i.e., they must be broken or gauged. In both cases the deformation classes of spacetime manifolds with the associated symmetry structure, captured by bordism groups, become relevant. This leads to strong universal consistency conditions for the low energy effective theories, which I will discuss in some special examples.