Generalized Symmetry-Enriched Phases and SymTFT

by Dr Rui Wen (University of Oxford)

Wednesday 3 Sep 2025, 10:30 → 11:30 Asia/Shanghai

B105 (CHEP)

I will present a unified view of phases with generalized symmetries and their relation to symmetry topological field theory (SymTFT). I begin by distinguishing two notions of symmetry that organize the subject: UV enrichment symmetry, acting on microscopic degrees of freedom, and IR intrinsic symmetry, which characterizes the emergent low-energy theory. I then outline a general theory of symmetry-enrichment for both gapped and gapless phases. When the enrichment symmetry is finite, SymTFT provides a convenient constructive toolkit: it makes transparent the operations of gauging and bosonization and systematically produces symmetry-enriched gapped and gapless phases. A special class—gapless SPTs—will be introduced; I will describe their classification and their SymTFT description in any dimensions. I will conclude with an outlook on symmetry-enrichment by continuous generalized symmetries, highlighting obstructions and open problems that point beyond the current SymTFT framework.

Bio:
Rui Wen is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford. He received his PhD in physics from the University of British Columbia and a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China; his research focuses on generalized symmetries, gapless topological phases, and Symmetry Topological Field Theory (SymTFT).

Tencent Meeting: 498-356-920

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