Speaker: Eric Sharpe (Virginia Tech)

Title: Anomaly resolution via decomposition

Abstract: In this talk we will discuss a method of anomaly resolution due to Wang-Wen-Witten in the special case of (1+1) dimensional theories. Briefly, for our purposes, Wang-Wen-Witten argued that an ill-defined anomalous orbifold [X/G] could be resolved by extending G to a larger group and adding suitable phases.  We analyze this process from the perspective of decomposition, a property of (1+1)-dimensional theories with “one-form symmetries” first described in 2006.  Examples of such theories include orbifolds with trivially-acting subgroups, of which the extensions of [X/G] are examples.  After a review of decomposition, we will see that decomposition implies that in (1+1) dimensions, the Wang-Wen-Witten procedure results in orbifolds that are equivalent to disjoint unions of orbifolds of X by explicitly nonanomalous subgroups of G.