Dušan Novičić | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Modified Abelian Gauge Theories

The topological properties of field configurations in gauge theory contain important data about the (generalized) global symmetries of the theory as well as potential inconsistencies in the form of gauge anomalies. In this work we modify the topological classes of Abelian $p$-form fields, generating new global variants of gauge theories. These modifications implement constraints directly on the classifying space of the gauge field and its cohomology classes via homotopy fiber construction. This general approach allows us to investigate the universal effects of the constraints on the conserved global charges encoded in gauge characteristic classes. We further demonstrate that this procedure generically leads to new topological sectors introducing additional global charges and anomalies in the modified gauge theories.

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arXiv2024

The Axion is Going Dark

In this work we explore the effect of a non-Abelian dark sector gauge group that couples to the axion field. In particular, we analyze effects that arise if the dark sector gauge group mixes topologically with the Standard Model. This is achieved by gauging a subgroup of the global center 1-form symmetries which embeds non-trivially in both the visible as well as the dark sector gauge groups. Leaving the local dynamics unchanged, this effect modifies the quantization conditions for the topological couplings of the axion, which enter the estimate of a lower bound on the axion-photon coupling. In the presence of a dark sector this lower bound can be reduced significantly, which might open up interesting new parameter regions for axion physics. We further determine the allowed exotic matter representations in the presence of topological mixing with a dark sector, explore the generalized categorical symmetries of such axion theories, and comment on other model-independent phenomenological consequences.

hep-th↗