arXiv subjects

Sean Sanford

Publications and source records attributed to Sean Sanford.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Putting the Brauer back in Brauer-Picard

We establish a 6-term left exact sequence, involving Galois cohomology of the base field $\mathbb K$, and the Brauer-Picard groupoid of a fusion category. This generalizes a result of Etingof, Nikshych, and Ostrik to the setting where $\mathbb K$ is not algebraically closed. Following their example, we use this exact sequence to compute examples of graded extensions of fusion categories over $\mathbb R$. Along the way, we establish several structural theorems regarding the duality morphisms for a fusion category as an object in the 4-category of braided tensor categories. The paper ends with a speculative look at a potential higher categorical explanation of the main result.

math.QA↗

arXiv2026

Pivotal Brauer-Picard groupoids and graded extensions

We develop pivotal and spherical versions of graded extension theory. We define the corresponding analogues of Brauer-Picard $2$-categorical groups and realize them as fixed points of natural $\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ $2$-categorical actions. We classify graded extensions of a pivotal tensor category by monoidal $2$-functors into the pivotal Brauer-Picard $2$-categorical group. A similar statement is proven for spherical (unimodular) tensor categories. We also develop an obstruction theory for determining when pivotal and spherical structures can be extended.

math.QA↗

arXiv2026

Braidings for Non-Split Tambara-Yamagami Categories over the Reals

Non-split Real Tambara-Yamagami categories are a family of fusion categories over the real numbers that were recently introduced and classified by Plavnik, Sanford, and Sconce. We consider which of these categories admit braidings, and classify the resulting braided equivalence classes. We also prove some new results about the split real and split complex Tambara-Yamagami Categories. V2: Final Section removed, to appear in Transformation Groups.

math.QA↗

arXiv2025

Higher tensor categories and their extensions: notes from the Scottish Talbot On Algebra and Topology

These lecture notes are the product of a week-long learning workshop on the work of Johnson-Freyd and Reutter on the problem of the existence of minimal nondegenerate extensions of braided fusion categories (arXiv:2105.15167). They recount the mathematical arguments of the original paper from an expository angle, with background material covering the algebra and homotopy theory required to understand the statement and follow the proof. The notes are aimed at newcomers to the field of (braided) fusion 1- and 2-categories.

math.QA↗

arXiv2025

Compact Semisimple Tensor 2-Categories are Morita Connected

In arXiv:2211.04917, it was shown that, over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, every fusion 2-category is Morita equivalent to a connected fusion 2-category, that is, one arising from a braided fusion 1-category. This result has recently allowed for a complete classification of fusion 2-categories. Here we establish that compact semisimple tensor 2-categories, which generalize fusion 2-categories to an arbitrary field of characteristic zero, also enjoy this ``Morita connectedness'' property. In order to do so, we generalize to an arbitrary field of characteristic zero many well-known results about braided fusion 1-categories over an algebraically closed field. Most notably, we prove that the Picard group of any braided fusion 1-category is indfinite, generalizing the classical fact that the Brauer group of a field is torsion. As an application of our main result, we derive the existence of braided fusion 1-categories indexed by the fourth Galois cohomology group of the absolute Galois group that represent interesting classes in the appropriate Witt groups.

math.QA↗

arXiv2024

Manifestly unitary higher Hilbert spaces

Higher idempotent completion gives a formal inductive construction of the $n$-category of finite dimensional $n$-vector spaces starting with the complex numbers. We propose a manifestly unitary construction of low dimensional higher Hilbert spaces, formally constructing the $\mathrm{C}^*$-3-category of 3-Hilbert spaces from Baez's 2-Hilbert spaces, which itself forms a 3-Hilbert space. We prove that the forgetful functor from 3-Hilbert spaces to 3-vector spaces is fully faithful.

math.QA↗

arXiv2024

Fusion Categories over Non-Algebraically Closed Fields

Several complications arise when attempting to work with fusion categories over arbitrary fields. Here we describe some of the new phenomena that occur when the field is not algebraically closed, and we adapt tools such as the Frobenius-Perron dimension in order to accommodate these new effects.

math.QA↗

arXiv2024

Invertible Fusion Categories

A tensor category $\mathcal{C}$ over a field $\mathbb{K}$ is said to be invertible if there's a tensor category $\mathcal{D}$ such that $\mathcal{C}\boxtimes\mathcal{D}$ is Morita equivalent to $\mathrm{Vec}_{\mathbb{K}}$. When $\mathbb{K}$ is algebraically closed, it is well-known that the only invertible fusion category is $\mathrm{Vec}_{\mathbb{K}}$, and any invertible multi-fusion category is Morita equivalent to $\mathrm{Vec}_{\mathbb{K}}$. By contrast, we show that for general $\mathbb{K}$ the invertible multi-fusion categories over a field $\mathbb{K}$ are classified (up to Morita equivalence) by $H^3(\mathbb{K};\mathbb{G}_m)$, the third Galois cohomology of the absolute Galois group of $\mathbb{K}$. We explicitly construct a representative of each class that is fusion (but not split fusion) in the sense that the unit object is simple (but not split simple). One consequence of our results is that fusion categories with braided equivalent Drinfeld centers need not be Morita equivalent when this cohomology group is nontrivial.

math.QA↗

arXiv2024

Tambara-Yamagami Categories over the Reals: The Non-Split Case

Tambara and Yamagami investigated a simple set of fusion rules with only one non-invertible object, and proved under which circumstances those rules could be given a coherent associator. We consider a generalization of such fusion rules to the setting where simple objects are no longer required to be split simple. Over the real numbers, this means that objects are either real, complex, or quaternionic. In this context, we prove a similar categorification result to the one of Tambara and Yamagami.

math.QA↗

arXiv2024

Enriched string-net models and their excitations

Boundaries of Walker-Wang models have been used to construct commuting projector models which realize chiral unitary modular tensor categories (UMTCs) as boundary excitations. Given a UMTC $\mathcal{A}$ representing the Witt class of an anomaly, the article [arXiv:2208.14018] gave a commuting projector model associated to an $\mathcal{A}$-enriched unitary fusion category $\mathcal{X}$ on a 2D boundary of the 3D Walker-Wang model associated to $\mathcal{A}$. That article claimed that the boundary excitations were given by the enriched center/Müger centralizer $Z^\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{X})$ of $\mathcal{A}$ in $Z(\mathcal{X})$. In this article, we give a rigorous treatment of this 2D boundary model, and we verify this assertion using topological quantum field theory (TQFT) techniques, including skein modules and a certain semisimple algebra whose representation category describes boundary excitations. We also use TQFT techniques to show the 3D bulk point excitations of the Walker-Wang bulk are given by the Müger center $Z_2(\mathcal{A})$, and we construct bulk-to-boundary hopping operators $Z_2(\mathcal{A})\to Z^{\mathcal{A}}(\mathcal{X})$ reflecting how the UMTC of boundary excitations $Z^{\mathcal{A}}(\mathcal{X})$ is symmetric-braided enriched in $Z_2(\mathcal{A})$. This article also includes a self-contained comprehensive review of the Levin-Wen string net model from a unitary tensor category viewpoint, as opposed to the skeletal $6j$ symbol viewpoint.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Levin-Wen is a gauge theory: entanglement from topology

We show that the Levin-Wen model of a unitary fusion category $\mathcal{C}$ is a gauge theory with gauge symmetry given by the tube algebra $\operatorname{Tube}(\mathcal{C})$. In particular, we define a model corresponding to a $\operatorname{Tube}(\mathcal{C})$ symmetry protected topological phase, and we provide a gauging procedure which results in the corresponding Levin-Wen model. In the case $\mathcal{C}=\mathsf{Hilb}(G,ω)$, we show how our procedure reduces to the twisted gauging of a trivial $G$-SPT to produce the Twisted Quantum Double. We further provide an example which is outside the bounds of the current literature, the trivial Fibonacci SPT, whose gauge theory results in the doubled Fibonacci string-net. Our formalism has a natural topological interpretation with string diagrams living on a punctured sphere. We provide diagrams to supplement our mathematical proofs and to give the reader an intuitive understanding of the subject matter.

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