Generalised global symmetries and magnetohydrodynamics

December 5, 2019
12:00pm to 1:00pm

Blue room

Specialist level
Speaker: 
Akash Jain
Institution: 
U. Victoria
Location&Place: 

Blue room

Abstract: 
Generalised global symmetries are a generic feature of theories with topologically conserved charges. For certain physical theories, these allows for an entirely symmetry based reformulation of the low-energy physics in the hydrodynamic regime without making reference to the specific microscopics. In this talk, we will introduce some of these ideas in the concrete setting of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), seen as a fluid with conserved "strings" (magnetic field lines). We will argue that MHD is described by a novel theory of superfluidity with a partially broken one-form symmetry. Time permitting, we will also comment on another application of generalised global symmetries to the theory of viscoelasticity. The talk is based on [1808.01939, 1811.04913, 1908.01175].