CMSA Quantum Matter/Quantum Field Theory Seminar: Domain walls, anomalies, and deconfinement

CMSA EVENTS

Speaker:

Erich Poppitz - University of Toronto

“Generalized” ’t Hooft anomalies impose new constraints on nonperturbative gauge dynamics. In confining theories with domain walls, they imply that quarks become liberated on the walls. The pertinent anomaly-inflow arguments have a formal flavor and our goal here is to shed light on dynamical aspects of domain-wall deconfinement. We use semiclassical means in a theoretically controlled setting.  While these tools do not require supersymmetry, for brevity (and elegance) we focus this talk on 4d N=1 super Yang-Mills theory. We review the set-up and study the domain walls’ properties, along the way deriving the  “N choose k” multiplicity of k-walls (connecting vacua k ``steps" apart). We use the results to explain how quarks of all N-alities become deconfined on all k-walls. A similar picture applies to deconfinement on domain walls in QCD at theta=pi, adjoint QCD, and axion domain walls. We end with discussing a ``wish list” of not well-understood aspects. (The bulk of this talk is based on 1909.10979, with Cox and Wong. However, it relies heavily on 1501.06773, with Anber and Sulejmanpasic, as well as 2001.03631, with Anber.)

via Zoom Video Conferencing: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/977347126