Duality-Symmetry Enhancement in Maxwell Theory

Free Maxwell theory on general four-manifolds may, under certain conditions on the background geometry, exhibit holomorphic factorization in its partition function. We show that when this occurs, new discrete symmetries emerge at orbifold points of the conformal manifold. These symmetries, which act only on a sublattice of flux configurations, are not associated with standard dualities, yet they may carry ’t Hooft anomalies, potentially causing the partition function to vanish even in the absence of apparent pathologies. We further explore their non-invertible extensions and argue that their anomalies can account for zeros of the partition function at smooth points in the moduli space.

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Publication Details

Journal
SciPost Physics
Published
2025-10-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21468/scipostphys.19.4.089
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.74
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article

Duality-Symmetry Enhancement in Maxwell Theory

Shani Meynet, Raffaele Savelli, Daniele Migliorati, Michele Tortora
2 citations
SciPost Physics
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
3.74
article

Duality-Symmetry Enhancement in Maxwell Theory

Shani Meynet, Raffaele Savelli, Daniele Migliorati, Michele Tortora
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Free Maxwell theory on general four-manifolds may, under certain conditions on the background geometry, exhibit holomorphic factorization in its partition function. We show that when this occurs, new discrete symmetries emerge at orbifold points of the conformal manifold. These symmetries, which act only on a sublattice of flux configurations, are not associated with standard dualities, yet they may carry ’t Hooft anomalies, potentially causing the partition function to vanish even in the absence of apparent pathologies. We further explore their non-invertible extensions and argue that their anomalies can account for zeros of the partition function at smooth points in the moduli space.

SciPost PhysicsVol. 19(4)
University of Rome Tor Vergata (IT), Uppsala University (SE), Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Roma Tor Vergata (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste (IT)
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
3.74
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