Generalized Symmetries and Defects in QFT and Gravity

Organizers:

Ibrahima Bah, Johns Hopkins University
Dan Freed, Harvard University
Sakura Schafer-Nameki, University of Oxford
Constantin Teleman, University of California Berkeley

Recent developments have shown that generalized symmetries—such as higher-form, non-invertible, and categorical symmetries—play a crucial role in constraining the dynamics of quantum field theories, characterizing defects, and uncovering new dualities. In gravity, on the other hand, it has been long conjectured that there are no charge conservation laws in its UV. This is also expected to extend to generalized symmetries, where their absence can constrain the structure of possible UV completions of gravity as well as the spectrum of gravitational excitations. These ideas have also found profound applications in the swampland program, where generalized symmetries impose sharp constraints on the landscape of consistent low-energy effective theories, as well as in holography, where they govern aspects of bulk/boundary correspondence and entanglement structures. Complementing this, modern ideas in topological field theory play a strong role in the study of generalized symmetries and defects, and one goal of this conference is to catalyze a stronger engagement of mathematicians with problems in gravity as well as the relation to topological theories (non-semisimple ones) that are relevant in this context. This is particularly important e.g. in the study of low-dimensional gravity and the relation to Liouville topological field theory. The meeting will bring together experts in these fields to consolidate progress, including the mathematical formalism of higher-categories, implications for the classification of topological phases, and consequences for black hole information and gravitational anomalies.

Learn more about our conference: https://sites.google.com/view/aspengensym/home

Deadline to apply was September 15.