[Colloquium] What's Done Cannot Be Undone: Non-Invertible Symmetries
Date and Time
Location
Broida 1640
Shu-Heng Shao
Speaker: Shu-Heng Shao, MIT
Title: What's Done Cannot Be Undone: Non-Invertible Symmetries
Abstract: The symmetry principle in physics has been generalized in several different directions in recent years. I will discuss recent developments on a novel kind of symmetry known as non-invertible symmetry. It is implemented by conserved operators that do not have an inverse, going outside the paradigm set by Wigner's theorem in quantum mechanics. Nonetheless, they lead to new conservation laws, novel topological phases of quantum matter, and insights into particle physics. I will start with the example in the Ising lattice model, and proceed to discuss applications in pion decay and axion physics.
