Strong, electromagnetic, and weak forces were unified in the Standard Model (SM) with spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking. These forces were further conjectured to be unified in a simple Lie group gauge interaction in the Grand Unification (GUT). In this work, we propose a theory beyond the SM and GUT by adding new gapped Topological Phase Sectors consistent with the nonperturbative global anomaly cancellation and cobordism constraints (especially from the baryon minus lepton number B−L, the electroweak hypercharge Y, and the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly). Gapped Topological Phase Sectors are constructed via symmetry extension, whose low energy contains unitary Lorentz invariant topological quantum field theories (TQFTs): either 3+1d non-invertible TQFT, or 4+1d invertible or non-invertible TQFT (short-range or long-range entangled gapped phase). Alternatively, there could also be right-handed "sterile" neutrinos, gapless unparticle physics, more general interacting conformal field theories, or gravity with topological cobordism constraints, or their combinations to altogether cancel the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly. We propose that a new high-energy physics frontier beyond the conventional 0d particle physics relies on the new Topological Force and Topological Matter including gapped extended objects (gapped 1d line and 2d surface operators or defects, etc., whose open ends carry deconfined fractionalized particle or anyonic string excitations) or gapless conformal matter. Physical characterizations of these gapped extended objects require the mathematical theories of cohomology, cobordism, or category. Although weaker than the weak force, Topological Force is infinite-range or long-range which does not decay in the distance, and mediates between the linked worldvolume trajectories via fractional or categorical statistical interactions.

No abstract uploaded!

Symmetry protected topological (SPT) states have boundary 't Hooft anomalies that obstruct an effective boundary theory realized in its own dimension with UV completion and with an on-site $G$-symmetry. In this work, yet we show that a certain anomalous non-on-site $G$ symmetry along the boundary becomes on-site when viewed as an extended $H$ symmetry, via a suitable group extension $1\to K\to H\to G\to1$. Namely, a non-perturbative global (gauge/gravitational) anomaly in $G$ becomes anomaly-free in $H$. This guides us to construct exactly soluble lattice path integral and Hamiltonian of symmetric gapped boundaries, \emph{always existent} for \emph{any} SPT state in any spacetime dimension $d \geq 2$ of \emph{any} finite symmetry group, including on-site unitary and anti-unitary time-reversal symmetries. The resulting symmetric gapped boundary can be described either by an $H$-symmetry extended boundary of bulk $d \geq 2$, or more naturally by a topological {emergent} $K$-gauge theory with a global symmetry $G$ on a 3+1D bulk or above. The excitations on such a symmetric topologically ordered boundary can carry fractional quantum numbers of the symmetry $G$, described by representations of $H$. (Apply our approach to a 1+1D boundary of 2+1D bulk, we find that a deconfined gauge boundary indeed has \emph{spontaneous symmetry breaking} with long-range order. The deconfined symmetry-breaking phase crosses over smoothly to a confined phase without a phase transition.) In contrast to known gapped boundaries/interfaces obtained via \emph{symmetry breaking} (either global symmetry breaking or Anderson-Higgs mechanism for gauge theory), our approach is based on \emph{symmetry extension}. More generally, applying our approach to SPT states, topologically ordered gauge theories and symmetry enriched topologically ordered (SET) states, leads to generic boundaries/interfaces constructed with a mixture of \emph{symmetry breaking}, \emph{symmetry extension}, and \emph{dynamical gauging}.

There are two important statements regarding the Trautman-Bondi mass at null infinity: one is the positivity, and the other is the Bondi mass loss formula, which are both global in nature. The positivity of the quasi-local mass can potentially lead to a local description at null infinity. This is confirmed for the Vaidya spacetime in this note. We study the Wang-Yau quasi-local mass on surfaces of fixed size at the null infinity of the Vaidya spacetime. The optimal embedding equation is solved explicitly and the quasi-local mass is evaluated in terms of the mass aspect function of the Vaidya spacetime.

The Standard Models contain chiral fermions coupled to gauge theories. It has been a long-standing problem to give such gauged chiral fermion theories a quantum non-perturbative definition. By classification of quantum anomalies and symmetric invertible topological orders via a mathematical cobordism theorem for differentiable and triangulable manifolds, and the existence of symmetric gapped boundary for the trivial symmetric invertible topological orders, we propose that Spin(10) chiral fermion theories with Weyl fermions in 16-dimensional spinor representations can be defined on a 3+1D lattice, and subsequently dynamically gauged to be a Spin(10) chiral gauge theory. As a result, the Standard Models from the 16n-chiral fermion SO(10) Grand Unification can be defined non-perturbatively via a 3+1D local lattice model of bosons or qubits. Furthermore, we propose that Standard Models from the 15n-chiral fermion SU(5) Grand Unification can also be realized by a 3+1D local lattice model of fermions.

We demonstrate how path integrals often used in problems of theoretical physics can be adapted to provide a machinery for performing Bayesian inference in function spaces. Such inference comes about naturally in the study of inverse problems of recovering continuous (infinite dimensional) coefficient functions from ordinary or partial differential equations, a problem which is typically ill-posed. Regularization of these problems using L2 function spaces (Tikhonov regularization) is equivalent to Bayesian probabilistic inference, using a Gaussian prior. The Bayesian interpretation of inverse problem regularization is useful since it allows one to quantify and characterize error and degree of precision in the solution of inverse problems, as well as examine assumptions made in solving the problem—namely whether the subjective choice of regularization is compatible with prior knowledge. Using path-integral formalism, Bayesian inference can be explored through various perturbative techniques, such as the semiclassical approximation, which we use in this manuscript. Perturbative path-integral approaches, while offering alternatives to computational approaches like Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo (MCMC), also provide natural starting points for MCMC methods that can be used to refine approximations. In this manuscript, we illustrate a path-integral formulation for inverse problems and demonstrate it on an inverse problem in membrane biophysics as well as inverse problems in potential theories involving the Poisson equation.

Inhomogeneous percolation, for its closer relationship with real-life, can be more useful and reasonable than homogeneous percolation to illustrate the critical phenomena and dynamical behaviour of complex networks. However, due to its intricacy, the theoretical framework of inhomogeneous percolation is far from being complete and many challenging problems are still open. Due to this reasn, in this paper, we investigate inhomogeneous site percolation on Bethe Lattices with two occupation probabilities, and we also extend the result to percolation with m occupation probabilities. The critical behaviour of this inhomogeneous percolation is shown clearly by formulating the percolation probability with given occupation probability, the critical occupation probability, and the average cluster size. Moreover, using the above theory, we discuss in detail the diffusion behaviour of an infectious disease (SARS) and present specific disease-control strategies in consideration of groups with different infection probabilities.

In this paper we compute spaces of chiral operators in general two-dimensional (0,2) nonlinear sigma models, both in theories twistable to the A/2 or B/2 model, as well as in non-twistable theories, and apply them to check recent duality conjectures. The fact that in a nonlinear sigma model, the Fock vacuum can act as a section of a line bundle on the target space plays a crucial role in our (0,2) computations, so we begin with a review of this property. We also take this opportunity to show how even in (2,2) theories, the Fock vacuum encodes in this way choices of target space spin structures, and discuss how such choices enter the A and B model topological field theories. We then compute chiral operators in general (0,2) nonlinear sigma models, and apply them to the recent Gadde-Gukov-Putrov triality proposal, which says that certain triples of (0,2) GLSMs should RG flow to nontrivial IR fixed points. We find that different UV theories in the same proposed universality class do not necessarily have the same space of chiral operators – but, the mismatched operators do not contribute to elliptic genera and are in non-integrable representations of the proposed IR affine symmetry groups, suggesting that the mismatched states become massive along RG flow. We find this state matching in examples not only of different geometric phases of the same GLSMs, but also in phases of different GLSMs, indirectly verifying the triality proposal, and giving a clean demonstration that (0,2) chiral rings are not topologically protected. We also check proposals for enhanced IR affine E6 symmetries in one such model, verifying that (matching) chiral states in phases of corresponding GLSMs transform as 27’s, \bar{27}’s.

We quantize the interaction of gravity with Yang-Mills and spinor fields, hence offering a quantum theory incorporating all four fundamental forces of nature. Let as abbreviate the spatial Hamilton functions of the Standard Model by $H_{SM}$ and the Hamilton function of gravity by $H_G$. Working in a fiber bundle $E$ with base space $\socc=\R[n]$, where the fiber elements are Riemannian metrics, we can express the Hamilton functions in the form $H_G+H_{SM}=H_G+t^{-\frac23}\tilde H_{SM}$ if $n=3$, where $\tilde H_{SM}$ depends on metrics $\s_{ij}$ satisfying $\det{\s_{ij}}=1$. In the quantization process, we quantize $H_G$ for general $\s_{ij}$ but $\tilde H_{SM}$ only for $\s_{ij}=\de_{ij}$ by the usual methods of QFT. Let $v$ \resp $\psi$ be the spatial eigendistributions of the respective Hamilton operators, then, the solutions $u$ of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation are given by $u=wv\psi$, where $w$ satisfies an ODE and $u$ is evaluated at $(t,\de_{ij})$ in the fibers.

Fractional quantum Hall (FQH) system at Landau level filling fraction $\nu=5/2$ has long been suggested to be non-Abelian, either Pfaffian (Pf) or antiPfaffian (APf) states by numerical studies, both with quantized Hall conductance $\sigma_{xy}=5e^2/2h$. Thermal Hall conductances of the Pf and APf states are quantized at $\kappa_{xy}=7/2$ and $\kappa_{xy}=3/2$ respectively in a proper unit. However, a recent experiment shows the thermal Hall conductance of $\nu=5/2$ FQH state is $\kappa_{xy}=5/2$. It has been speculated that the system contains random Pf and APf domains driven by disorders, and the neutral chiral Majorana modes on the domain walls may undergo a percolation transition to a $\kappa_{xy}=5/2$ phase. In this work, we do perturbative and non-perturbative analyses on the domain walls between Pf and APf. We show the domain wall theory possesses an emergent SO(4) symmetry at energy scales below a threshold $\Lambda_1$, which is lowered to an emergent U(1)$\times$U(1) symmetry at energy scales between $\Lambda_1$ and a higher value $\Lambda_2$, and is finally lowered to the composite fermion parity symmetry $\mathbb{Z}_2^F$ above $\Lambda_2$. Based on the emergent symmetries, we propose a specific phase diagram of the disordered $\nu=5/2$ FQH system, and show that a $\kappa_{xy}=5/2$ phase arises at disorder energy scales $\Lambda>\Lambda_1$. Furthermore, we show the gapped double-semion sector of $N_D$ closed domain walls contributes non-local topological degeneracy $2^{N_D-1}$, causing a low temperature peak in the heat capacity. We also implement a non-perturbative method to bootstrap generic topological 1+1D domain walls (2-surface defects) applicable to any 2+1D non-Abelian topological order.