Foliated-Exotic Duality and Anomaly Inflow in Fracton Quantum Field Theories

Abstract

Fracton phases are new types of phases of matter characterized by subsystem global symmetry, which is a generalized global symmetry whose symmetry operator is partially topological. Their continuum low-energy effective descriptions admit two different formulations: an exotic quantum field theory (QFT) using exotic tensor gauge fields, and a foliated QFT constructed from a foliation structure and foliated gauge fields. For certain fracton QFTs, these two descriptions are equivalent, which is called the foliated-exotic duality. In this dissertation, we extend the foliated-exotic duality by combining it with the anomaly inflow mechanism for 't Hooft anomalies of subsystem symmetries. This dissertation has two main results. First, we discuss the exotic and foliated $BF$ theories in 2+1 dimensions, which exhibit the mixed 't Hooft anomaly of ${\mathbb{Z}}_N\times {\mathbb{Z}}_N$ subsystem symmetry. This anomaly is captured by a subsystem symmetry-protected topological (SSPT) phase for ${\mathbb{Z}}_N\times {\mathbb{Z}}_N$ subsystem symmetry in one dimension higher. By extending the foliated-exotic duality in the fractonic $BF$ theory to the SSPT phase, we establish the field correspondences in the SSPT phase and construct the foliated description of the SSPT phase. Second, we discuss the exotic $\varphi$-theory in 2+1 dimensions -- a fractonic gapless scalar field theory, which has the 't Hooft anomaly of $U(1)\times U(1)$ subsystem symmetry. The anomaly is captured by an SSPT phase for $U(1)\times U(1)$ subsystem symmetry in 3+1 dimensions via the anomaly inflow mechanism. Extending the foliated-exotic duality to the $\varphi$-theory, we establish field correspondences in the $\varphi$-theory and construct the foliated $\varphi$-theory that is equivalent to the exotic $\varphi$-theory. This provides the first example of the foliated-exotic duality in gapless theories.

Doctoral Dissertation submitted to Department of Physics, University of Tokyo (Dec. 2025), 158 pages. Based on arXiv:2404.10601 and arXiv:2504.10835