Higher-form symmetries and 3-group in axion electrodynamics

Abstract

We study higher-form symmetries in a low-energy effective theory of a massless axion coupled with a photon in (3+1) dimensions. It is shown that the higher-form symmetries of this system are accompanied by a semistrict 3-group (2-crossed module) structure, which can be found by the correlation functions of symmetry generators of the higher-form symmetries. We argue that the Witten effect and anomalous Hall effect in the axion electrodynamics can be described in terms of 3-group transformations.

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