2-Group symmetries in class S
Lakshya Bhardwaj
Abstract
2-group symmetries are generalized symmetries that arise when 1-form and 0-form symmetries mix with each other. We uncover the existence of a class of 2-group symmetries in general 4d <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> \mathcal{N}=2 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theories of Class S that can be constructed by compactifying 6d <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>6</mml:mn> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> \mathcal{N}=(2,0) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="prefix">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="postfix">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> SCFTs on Riemann surfaces carrying arbitrary regular punctures and outer-automorphism twist lines. The 2-group structure can be captured in terms of equivalence classes of line defects plus flavor Wilson lines, which can be thought of as accounting for screening of line defects while keeping track of flavor charges. We describe a method for computing these equivalence classes for a general Class S theory using the data on the Riemman surface used for compactifying its parent 6d <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>6</mml:mn> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> \mathcal{N}=(2,0) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="prefix">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="postfix">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theory.