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A Modified Villain Formulation of Fractons and Other Exotic Theories

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arxiv 2103.01257 v4 pith:2GMKRWAO submitted 2021-03-01 cond-mat.str-el hep-th

A Modified Villain Formulation of Fractons and Other Exotic Theories

classification cond-mat.str-el hep-th
keywords theoriescontinuumlatticemodelsapproachexoticformulationfractons
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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We reformulate known exotic theories (including theories of fractons) on a Euclidean spacetime lattice. We write them using the Villain approach and then we modify them to a convenient range of parameters. The new lattice models are closer to the continuum limit than the original lattice versions. In particular, they exhibit many of the recently found properties of the continuum theories including emergent global symmetries and surprising dualities. Also, these new models provide a clear and rigorous formulation to the continuum models and their singularities. In appendices, we use this approach to review well-studied lattice models and their continuum limits. These include the XY-model, the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ clock-model, and various gauge theories in diverse dimensions. This presentation clarifies the relation between the condensed-matter and the high-energy views of these systems. It emphasizes the role of symmetries associated with the topology of field space, duality, and various anomalies.

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