Categorical Symmetry of the Standard Model from Gravitational Anomaly

TL;DR

This paper explores how the Standard Model's baryon and lepton number symmetries are affected by gravitational anomalies, revealing the persistence of noninvertible categorical symmetries in gravitational backgrounds through advanced topological constructions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework for constructing noninvertible symmetry charges from anomalous symmetries using topological defect operators and anomaly inflow, applicable to gravitational anomalies in the Standard Model.

Findings

Noninvertible categorical B-L symmetry survives in gravitational backgrounds.

Construction of symmetry charge operators as topological defects from anomalous symmetries.

Application of anomaly inflow, Pontryagin class, and topological quantum field theories.

Abstract

In the Standard Model, some combination of the baryon $\bf B$ and lepton $\bf L$ number symmetry is free of mixed anomalies with strong and electroweak $su(3) \times su(2) \times u(1)_{\tilde Y}$ gauge forces. However, it can still suffer from a mixed gravitational anomaly, hypothetically pertinent to leptogenesis in the very early universe. This happens when the total "sterile right-handed" neutrino number $n_{\nu_R}$ is not equal to the family number $N_f$. Thus the invertible $\bf B - L$ symmetry current conservation can be violated quantum mechanically by gravitational backgrounds such as gravitational instantons. In specific, we show that a noninvertible categorical $\bf B - L$ generalized symmetry still survives in gravitational backgrounds. In general, we propose a construction of noninvertible symmetry charge operators as topological defects derived from invertible anomalous symmetries that suffer from mixed gravitational anomalies. Examples include the perturbative local and nonperturbative global anomalies classified by $\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{Z}_{16}$ respectively. For this construction, we utilize the anomaly inflow bulk-boundary correspondence, the 4d Pontryagin class and the gravitational Chern-Simons 3-form, the 3d Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev-type topological quantum field theory corresponding to a 2d rational conformal field theory with an appropriate rational chiral central charge, and the 4d $\mathbb{Z}_4^{\rm TF}$-time-reversal symmetric topological superconductor with 3d boundary topological order.