Dynamical stabilizer codes (DSCs) have recently emerged as a powerful generalization of static stabilizer codes for quantum error correction, replacing a fixed stabilizer group with a sequence of non-commuting measurements. This dynamical structure unlocks new possibilities for fault tolerance but also introduces new challenges, as errors must now be tracked across both space and time. In this work, we provide a physical and topological understanding of DSCs by establishing a correspondence between qudit Pauli measurements and non-invertible symmetries in 4+1-dimensional 2-form gauge theories. Sequences of measurements in a DSC are mapped to a fusion of the operators implementing these non-invertible symmetries. We show that the error detectors of a DSC correspond to endable surface operators in the gauge theory, whose endpoints define line operators, and that detectable errors are precisely those surface operators that braid non-trivially with these lines. Finally, we demonstrate how this framework naturally recovers the spacetime stabilizer code associated with a DSC.

We revisit the non-linear sigma model approach to string theory with the closed superstring field theory. We construct the string field theory around the non-linear sigma model background with the patch-by-patch description. We show that our string field theory action is invariant under the gauge transformation and solves the BV master equation, thereby providing a tool to study quantum gravitational effects in curved backgrounds in small $\alpha'$ and $g_s$ approximation. We illustrate how to use our results to study curved backgrounds in $\alpha'$ expansion by studying Calabi-Yau compactification in $\alpha'$ expansion. We draw connections between Tseytlin's approach to the non-linear sigma model and the string field theoretic approach. We comment on future directions.

We study five pencils of projective quartic Delsarte K3 surfaces. Over finite fields, we give explicit formulas for the point counts of each family, written in terms of hypergeometric sums. Over the complex numbers, we match the periods of the corresponding family with hypergeometric differential operators and series. We also obtain a decomposition of the $L$-function of each pencil in terms of hypergeometric $L$-series and Dedekind zeta functions. This gives an explicit description of the hypergeometric motives geometrically realised by each pencil.

We embark on a systematic study of continuous non-invertible symmetries, focusing on 1+1d CFTs. We describe a generalized version of Noether's theorem, where continuous non-invertible symmetries are associated to $\textit{non-local}$ conserved currents: point-like operators attached to extended topological defects. The generalized Noether's theorem unifies several constructions of continuous non-invertible symmetries in the literature, and allows us to exhibit many more examples in diverse theories of interest. We first review known examples which are non-intrinsic (i.e., invertible up to gauging), and then describe $\textit{new}$ examples in Wess-Zumino-Witten models and products of minimal models. For some of these new examples, we show that these continuous non-invertible symmetries are intrinsic if we demand that a certain global symmetry is preserved. The continuous non-invertible symmetries in products of minimal models also allow us to construct new examples of defect conformal manifolds in a single copy of a minimal model. Finally, we comment on continuous non-invertible symmetries in higher dimensions.

We study N=1 field theories with a U(1)_R symmetry on compact four-manifolds M. Supersymmetry requires M to be a complex manifold. The supersymmetric theory on M can be described in terms of conventional fields coupled to background supergravity, or in terms of twisted fields adapted to the complex geometry of M. Many properties of the theory that are difficult to see in one formulation are simpler in the other one. We use the twisted description to study the dependence of the partition function Z_M on the geometry of M, as well as coupling constants and background gauge fields, recovering and extending previous results. We also indicate how to generalize our analysis to three-dimensional N=2 theories with a U(1)_R symmetry. In this case supersymmetry requires M to carry a transversely holomorphic foliation, which endows it with a near-perfect analogue of complex geometry. Finally, we present new explicit formulas for the dependence of Z_M on the choice of U(1)_R symmetry in four and three dimensions, and illustrate them for complex manifolds diffeomorphic to S^3 x S^1, as well as general squashed three-spheres.

Given any symmetry acting on a $d$-dimensional quantum field theory, there is an associated $(d+1)$-dimensional topological field theory known as the Symmetry TFT (SymTFT). The SymTFT is useful for decoupling the universal quantities of quantum field theories, such as their generalized global symmetries and 't Hooft anomalies, from their dynamics. In this work, we explore the SymTFT for theories with Kramers-Wannier-like duality symmetry in both $(1+1)$d and $(3+1)$d quantum field theories. After constructing the SymTFT, we use it to reproduce the non-invertible fusion rules of duality defects, and along the way we generalize the concept of duality defects to \textit{higher} duality defects. We also apply the SymTFT to the problem of distinguishing intrinsically versus non-intrinsically non-invertible duality defects in $(1+1)$d.

Short-range entangled topological phases of matter are closely connected to Topological Quantum Field Theory. We use this connection to classify bosonic Symmetry Protected Topological Phases in low dimensions, including the case when the symmetry involves time-reversal. To accomplish this, we generalize Turaev's description of equivariant TQFT to the unoriented case. We show that invertible unoriented equivariant TQFTs in one or less spatial dimensions are classified by twisted group cohomology, in agreement with the group cohomology proposal of Chen, Gu, Liu and Wen. We also show that invertible oriented equivariant TQFTs in spatial dimension two or less are classified by ordinary group cohomology.

We discuss invertible and non-invertible topological condensation defects arising from gauging a discrete higher-form symmetry on a higher codimensional manifold in spacetime, which we define as higher gauging. A $q$-form symmetry is called $p$-gaugeable if it can be gauged on a codimension-$p$ manifold in spacetime. We focus on 1-gaugeable 1-form symmetries in general 2+1d QFT, and gauge them on a surface in spacetime. The universal fusion rules of the resulting invertible and non-invertible condensation surfaces are determined. In the special case of 2+1d TQFT, every (invertible and non-invertible) 0-form global symmetry, including the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ electromagnetic symmetry of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ gauge theory, is realized from higher gauging. We further compute the fusion rules between the surfaces, the bulk lines, and lines that only live on the surfaces, determining some of the most basic data for the underlying fusion 2-category. We emphasize that the fusion "coefficients" in these non-invertible fusion rules are generally not numbers, but rather 1+1d TQFTs. Finally, we discuss examples of non-invertible symmetries in non-topological 2+1d QFTs such as the free $U(1)$ Maxwell theory and QED.

We compute the elliptic genera of general two-dimensional N=(2,2) and N=(0,2) gauge theories. We find that the elliptic genus is given by the sum of Jeffrey-Kirwan residues of a meromorphic form, representing the one-loop determinant of fields, on the moduli space of flat connections on T^2. We give several examples illustrating our formula, with both Abelian and non-Abelian gauge groups, and discuss some dualities for U(k) and SU(k) theories. This paper is a sequel to the authors' previous paper arXiv:1305.0533.

We apply localization techniques to compute the partition function of a two-dimensional N=(2,2) R-symmetric theory of vector and chiral multiplets on S^2. The path integral reduces to a sum over topological sectors of a matrix integral over the Cartan subalgebra of the gauge group. For gauge theories which would be completely Higgsed in the presence of a Fayet-Iliopoulos term in flat space, the path integral alternatively reduces to the product of a vortex times an antivortex partition functions, weighted by semiclassical factors and summed over isolated points on the Higgs branch. As applications we evaluate the partition function for some U(N) gauge theories, showing equality of the path integrals for theories conjectured to be dual by Hori and Tong and deriving new expressions for vortex partition functions.

This is a companion paper of arXiv:1601.03586. We study Coulomb branches of unframed and framed quiver gauge theories of type $ADE$. In the unframed case they are isomorphic to the moduli space of based rational maps from ${\mathbb C}P^1$ to the flag variety. In the framed case they are slices in the affine Grassmannian and their generalization. In the appendix, written jointly with Joel Kamnitzer, Ryosuke Kodera, Ben Webster, and Alex Weekes, we identify the quantized Coulomb branch with the truncated shifted Yangian.

It is known that the 't Hooft anomalies of invertible global symmetries can be characterized by an invertible TQFT in one higher dimension. The analogous statement remains to be understood for non-invertible symmetries. In this note we discuss how the linking invariants in a non-invertible TQFT known as the Symmetry TFT (SymTFT) can be used as a diagnostic for 't Hooft anomalies of non-invertible symmetries. When the non-invertible symmetry is non-intrinsically non-invertible, and hence the SymTFT is a Dijkgraaf-Witten model, the linking invariants can be computed explicitly. We illustrate this proposal through the examples of the abelian Higgs model in 2d, as well as adjoint QCD and $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills in 4d. We also comment on how the 't Hooft anomalies of non-invertible symmetries impose new constraints on the dynamics.

We discuss how D=5 maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory (MSYM) might be used to study or even to define the (2,0) theory in six dimensions. It is known that the compactification of (2,0) theory on a circle leads to D=5 MSYM. A variety of arguments suggest that the relation can be reversed, and that all of the degrees of freedom of (2,0) theory are already present in D=5 MSYM. If so, this relation should have consequences for D=5 SYM perturbation theory. We explore whether it might imply all orders finiteness, or else an unusual relation between the cutoff and the gauge coupling. S-duality of the reduction to D=4 may provide nonperturbative constraints or tests of these options.

The counting of BPS states in four-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ theories has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. For superconformal theories, these states are in one-to-one correspondence with local operators in various short representations. The generating function for this counting problem has branch cuts and hence several Cardy-like limits, which are analogous to high-temperature limits. Particularly interesting is the second sheet, which has been shown to capture the microstates and phases of supersymmetric black holes in AdS$_5$. Here we present a 3d Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach to the high-temperature limit on the second sheet. We use the EFT to derive the behavior of the index at orders $\beta^{-2},\beta^{-1},\beta^0$. We also make a conjecture for $O(\beta)$, where we argue that the expansion truncates up to exponentially small corrections. An important point is the existence of vector multiplet zero modes, unaccompanied by massless matter fields. The runaway of Affleck-Harvey-Witten is however avoided by a non-perturbative confinement mechanism. This confinement mechanism guarantees that our results are robust.

We describe a new method for constraining Laplacian spectra of hyperbolic surfaces and 2-orbifolds. The main ingredient is consistency of the spectral decomposition of integrals of products of four automorphic forms. Using a combination of representation theory of $\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ and semi-definite programming, the method yields rigorous upper bounds on the Laplacian spectral gap. In several examples, the bound is nearly sharp. For instance, our bound on all genus-2 surfaces is $\lambda_1\leq 3.8388976481$, while the Bolza surface has $\lambda_1\approx 3.838887258$. The bounds also allow us to determine the set of spectral gaps attained by all hyperbolic 2-orbifolds. Our methods can be generalized to higher-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds and to yield stronger bounds in the two-dimensional case. The ideas were closely inspired by modern conformal bootstrap.

Motivated by the goal of understanding quantum systems away from maximal chaos, in this note we derive a simple closed form expression for the fermion four point function of the large $q$ SYK model valid at arbitrary temperatures and to leading order in $1/N$. The result captures both the large temperature, weakly coupled regime, and the low temperature, nearly conformal, maximally chaotic regime of the model. The derivation proceeds by the Sommerfeld-Watson resummation of an infinite series that recasts the four point function as a sum of three Regge poles. The location of these poles determines the Lyapunov exponent that interpolates between zero and the maximal value as the temperature is decreased. Our results are in complete agreement with the ones by Streicher arXiv:1911.10171 obtained using a different method.

We compute the elliptic genera of two-dimensional N=(2,2) and N=(0,2) gauged linear sigma models via supersymmetric localization, for rank-one gauge groups. The elliptic genus is expressed as a sum over residues of a meromorphic function whose argument is the holonomy of the gauge field along both the spatial and the temporal directions of the torus. We illustrate our formulas by a few examples including the quintic Calabi-Yau, N=(2,2) SU(2) and O(2) gauge theories coupled to N fundamental chiral multiplets, and a geometric N=(0,2) model.

We show that for a range of strongly coupled theories with a first order phase transition, the domain wall or bubble velocity can be expressed in a simple way in terms of a perfect fluid hydrodynamic formula, and thus in terms of the equation of state. We test the predictions for the domain wall velocities using the gauge/gravity duality.

We consider line defects with large quantum numbers in conformal field theories. First, we consider spin impurities, both for a free scalar triplet and in the Wilson-Fisher $O(3)$ model. For the free scalar triplet, we find a rich phase diagram that includes a perturbative fixed point, a new nonperturbative fixed point, and runaway regimes. To obtain these results, we develop a new semiclassical approach. For the Wilson-Fisher model, we propose an alternative description, which becomes weakly coupled in the large spin limit. This allows us to chart the phase diagram and obtain numerous rigorous predictions for large spin impurities in $2+1$ dimensional magnets. Finally, we also study $1/2$-BPS Wilson lines in large representations of the gauge group in rank-1 $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal field theories. We contrast the results with the qualitative behavior of large spin impurities in magnets.