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arXiv:1902.05550 · SciPost Physics

A web of 2d dualities: ${\bf Z}_2$ gauge fields and Arf invariants

Andreas Karch, David Tong, Carl Turner

Published Jul 10, 2019• 151 citations
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Abstract

We describe a web of well-known dualities connecting quantum field theories in d=1+1 dimensions. The web is constructed by gauging Z_2 Z 2 global symmetries and includes a number of perennial favourites such as the Jordan-Wigner transformation, Kramers-Wannier duality, bosonization of a Dirac fermion, and T-duality. There are also less-loved examples, such as non-modular invariant c=1 CFTs that depend on a background spin structure.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.7.1.007

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A web of 2d dualities: Z2{\bf Z}_2Z2​ gauge fields and Arf invariants
We describe a web of well-known dualities connecting quantum field theories in d=1+1 dimensions. The web is constructed by gauging Z_2 Z 2 global symmetries and includes a number of perennial favourites such as the Jordan-Wigner transformation, Kramers-Wannier duality, bosonization of a Dirac fermion, and T-duality. There are also less-loved examples, such as non-modular invariant c=1 CFTs that depend on a background spin structure.
We grow the web of dualities for conformal field theories (CFTs) in 2+1 spacetime dimensions to include quantum critical transitions of Dirac fermions. Our construction uses the seed duality, equating a free Dirac fermion with a complex boson coupled to a Chern-Simons gauge field, to express various Gross-Neveu-Yukawa (GNY) critical points of N fermions in terms of the same number of complex bosons and partner gauge fields. In some instances, monopole operators appear explicitly in the dual action, such as for the superconducting transition of a single Dirac fermion, which is a CFT with emergent supersymmetry. We match phase diagrams, symmetries and their anomalies. By further gauging certain symmetries, we derive offspring dualities. For example, starting with the duality for the regular GNY transition of 2 Dirac fermions, we arrive at the duality between a Neel-to-VBS deconfined quantum critical point and a gauged-Gross-Neveu transition. Finally, we use a large-N expansion for monopole operators, and compare with known scaling dimensions in the simplest single-flavour GNY transition.
We explore an exact duality in (2+1)(2+1)(2+1) dimensions [(2+1)D][(2+1)\mathrm{D}][(2+1)D] between the fermionization of a bosonic theory with a Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ subsystem symmetry and a fermionic theory with a Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ subsystem fermion parity symmetry. A typical example is the duality between the fermionization of the plaquette Ising model and the plaquette fermion model. We first revisit the standard boson-fermion duality in (1+1)(1+1)(1+1) dimensions with a Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ 0-form symmetry, presenting in a way generalizable to (2+1)D(2+1)\mathrm{D}(2+1)D. We proceed to (2+1)D(2+1)\mathrm{D}(2+1)D with a Z2{\mathbb{Z}}_{2}Z2​ subsystem symmetry and establish the exact duality on the lattice by using the generalized Jordan-Wigner map, with a careful discussion on the mapping of the twist and symmetry sectors. This motivates us to introduce the subsystem Arf invariant, which exhibits a foliation structure.
We describe an n-dimensional (n≥2) analog of the Jordan-Wigner transformation, which maps an arbitrary fermionic system to Pauli matrices while preserving the locality of the Hamiltonian. When the space is simply-connected, this bosonization gives a duality between any fermionic system in arbitrary n spatial dimensions and a new class of (n-1)-form Z₂ gauge theories in n dimensions with a modified Gauss’s law. We describe several examples of 2d bosonization, including free fermions on square and honeycomb lattices and the Hubbard model, and 3d bosonization, including a solvable Z₂ lattice gauge theory with Dirac cones in the spectrum. This bosonization formalism has an explicit dependence on the second Stiefel-Whitney class and a choice of spin structure on the manifold, a key feature for defining fermions. A new formula for Stiefel-Whitney homology classes on lattices is derived. We also derive the Euclidean actions for the corresponding lattice gauge theories from the bosonization. The topological actions contain Chern-Simons terms for (2+1)D or Steenrod Square terms for general dimensions. Finally, we apply the bosonization to construct various bosonic or fermionic symmetry-protectedtopological (SPT) phases. It has been shown that supercohomology fermionic SPT phases are dual to bosonic higher-group SPT phases.
It is well known that the noninteracting Majorana chain is dual to the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model, either through the Jordan–Wigner transformation or by gauging fermion parity. In this correspondence, the minimal translation of the Majorana chain maps to the celebrated Kramers–Wannier (KW) duality of the spin model, with the critical point mapped to the self-dual point. In this work, we generalize this mapping to two and higher dimensions by constructing a unitary equivalence between the parity-gauged fermionic system and a spin system defined on arbitrary polyhedral decompositions of space. Imposing the flatness condition on the gauge field yields a bosonization duality between the original (ungauged) fermionic system and a gauged spin system obeying a Gauss law. The dependence of the Gauss law in the spin system on the Kasteleyn orientation (and the discrete spin structure) of the fermionic system is made explicit. Applying this bosonization to one or two copies of Majorana fermions on translationally invariant lattices, we derive higher-dimensional analogs of KW (self-) dualities in spin systems arising from fermionic minimal translations. The KW (self-) dualities are non-invertible due to projections onto eigenspaces of higher-form symmetries in the associated symmetry operators. The bosonization framework we present is intuitive, general, and systematic, encompassing other known exact bosonization methods while offering a novel approach to establish new connections between fermionic and spin systems in arbitrary dimensions.
A bstract We use the ideas behind the duality web to construct numerous conformal field theories mediating the phase transitions between various symmetry broken and topological phases. In particular we obtain the full field theory version of the Kennedy Tasaki transformation, mapping a gapless theory mediating a topological phase transition of symmetry protected topological orders to a standard symmetry breaking one in a 1+1 dimensional ℤ 2 × ℤ 2 gauge theory. When we consider all possible discrete gauging operations, we obtain bosonic and fermionic webs with 9 critical theories per web, each connecting 4 separate gapped phases, some of them topological. Bosonization maps the two webs into each other. In addition to discussing the multi-critical theory connecting the four gapped phases in each phase diagram, we discuss the partially gapped theories connecting two of those four. Some of these are gapless symmetry protected topological phases.