We present counterexamples to the lore that symmetries that cannot be gauged or made on site are necessarily anomalous. Specifically, we construct unitary, internal symmetries of two-dimensional lattice models that cannot be consistently coupled to background or dynamical gauge fields or disentangled to a tensor product of on-site operators. These symmetries are nevertheless anomaly-free in the sense that they admit symmetric, gapped Hamiltonians with unique, invertible ground states. We show that symmetries of this kind are characterized by an index [ω]∈H^{2}(G,Q_{+}), where Q_{+} is the multiplicative group of positive rational numbers labeling one-dimensional quantum cellular automata.
We introduce and study (fermionic and bosonic) invertible quasi-local algebras over uniformly locally finite metric spaces
X with infinite-dimensional local von Neumann algebras. We show that the group of Brauer equivalence classes of such algebras is isomorphic to both the group of phases of invertible states and the group of stable equivalence classes of quantum cellular automata over
X×Z. Using K-theory of the symmetric monoidal category of invertible quasi-local algebras and bounded spread isomorphisms, we propose a definition of an
Ω-spectrum of invertible phases as conjectured by Kitaev. We then show that the
c=21 chiral Majorana fermion net and the
(E8)1 conformal net provide Brauer non-trivial invertible quasi-local algebras, thus providing explicit constructions of non-trivial invertible states and quantum cellular automata on
Z2. In addition, we show that the time-slice nets of rational diagonal conformal field theories admit lattice degrees of freedom, which implies the discretization of any holomorphic conformal net is invertible.
Self-dualities and the stacking of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases are basic operations on quantum many-body systems. For a
Zp one-form symmetry in 3+1d these correspond to the Kramers-Wannier-Wegner duality
S, which is the gauging operation underlying non-invertible duality symmetries, and the stacking of a 1-form symmetry SPT
T. In the continuum, they form a central extension of
PSL(2,Z4) for
p=2, and of
SL(2,Zp) for odd primes
p, whose central elements are invertible theories with purely gravitational response. These central extensions are governed by a twisted, graded generalization of the Witt group of abelian anyon theories, which we determine. For
p=2 the resulting group is the single-qubit Clifford group, with duality and entangler acting as the Hadamard and phase gates. We realize this entire structure microscopically as quantum cellular automata (QCA) acting on a certain local operator algebra associated with a spin lattice Hilbert space on a cubic lattice. Specifically, our local operator algebra is built by starting with all local operators commuting with a
Zp 1-form symmetry, and taking the quotient by all the (local) 1-form symmetry generators. The central elements can always be extended to the full tensor product algebra with a uniquely defined QCA class. For
p=2 they are generated by the non-trivial semion QCA, and for odd prime
p they are generated by the non-trivial
Zp Clifford QCA. Consequently the lattice fusion rules reproduce the continuum ones only up to these QCAs and lattice translations, giving rise to fusion rules refined by QCAs.
Recent work has constructed higher-dimensional analogs of non-invertible symmetries similar to 1+1d Kramers-Wannier duality. Although their continuum descriptions often treat purely gravitational topological terms as inessential counterterms, these terms can have an essential lattice manifestation: they distinguish states prepared by finite-depth quantum circuits (FDQCs) from those entangled by nontrivial quantum cellular automata (QCAs). Motivated by this mismatch, we show that QCAs associated with gravitational topological responses arise in several related settings: (1) lattice realizations of projective
SL(2,ZN) relations generated by topological operations on symmetries; (2) squares of dualities that generalize the relation between fermionization and Kramers-Wannier duality; (3) lattice implementations of QCAs through higher-form gauging; and (4) invertible phases protected by generalized time-reversal symmetries. We derive new projective
SL(2,ZN) relations whose projective phases are gravitational topological responses constructed from Stiefel-Whitney classes. We furthermore give a general protocol for preparing the associated QCA-entangled states using finite-depth unitary circuits, measurements, and error correction. These results unify the study of gravitational topological responses in field theories, higher dimensional dualities, and quantum cellular automata.
Over an arbitrary commutative ring
R, we develop a theory of quantum cellular automata. We then use algebraic K-theory to construct a space
Q(X) of quantum cellular automata (QCA) on a given metric space
X. In most cases of interest,
π0Q(X) classifies QCA up to quantum circuits and stabilization. Notably, the QCA spaces are related by homotopy equivalences
Q(∗)≃ΩnQ(Zn) for all
n, which shows that the classification of QCA on Euclidean lattices is given by an
Ω-spectrum indexed by the dimension
n. As a corollary, we also obtain a non-connective delooping of the K-theory of Azumaya
R-algebras, which may be of independent interest. We also include a section leading to the
Ω-spectrum for QCA over
C∗-algebras with unitary circuits.
of global symmetries play a fundamental role in quantum many-body systems and quantum field theory (QFT). In this paper, we make a systematic analysis of —the analog of ’t Hooft anomalies in lattice systems—for which we give a precise definition. Crucially, a lattice anomaly is not a feature of a specific Hamiltonian but rather is a topological invariant of the symmetry action. The controlled setting of lattice systems allows for a systematic and rigorous treatment of lattice anomalies, shorn of the technical challenges of QFT. We find that lattice anomalies reproduce the expected properties of QFT anomalies in many ways but also have crucial differences. In particular, lattice anomalies and QFT anomalies are not, contrary to a common expectation, in one-to-one correspondence, and there can be nontrivial anomalies on the lattice that are : They admit symmetric trivial gapped ground states and map to trivial QFT anomalies at low energies. Nevertheless, we show that lattice anomalies (including IR-trivial ones) have a number of interesting consequences in their own right, including connections to commuting projector models, phases of many-body-localized systems, and quantum cellular automata. We make substantial progress on the classification of lattice anomalies and develop several theoretical tools to characterize their consequences on symmetric Hamiltonians. Our work places symmetries of quantum many-body lattice systems into a unified theoretical framework and may also suggest new perspectives on symmetries in QFT.