Non-invertible defects in 5d, boundaries and holography

Abstract

We show that very simple theories of abelian gauge fields with a cubic Chern-Simons term in 5d have an infinite number of non-invertible codimension two defects. They arise by dressing the symmetry operators of the broken electric 1-form symmetry with a suitable topological field theory, for any rational angle. We further discuss the same theories in the presence of a 4d boundary, and more particularly in a holographic setting. There we find that the bulk defects, when pushed to the boundary, have various different fates. Most notably, they can become codimension one non-invertible defects of a boundary theory with an ABJ anomaly.

Topics & Concepts