IQIM Postdoctoral and Graduate Student Seminar

Abstract: We demonstrate that 3+1-dimensional quantum electrodynamics with fermionic charges, fermionic monopoles, and fermionic dyons arises at the edge of a 4+1-dimensional gapped state with short-range entanglement. This state cannot be adiabatically connected to a product state, even in the absence of any symmetry. This provides independent evidence for the obstruction found by arXiv:1306.3238 to a 3+1-dimensional short-distance completion of all-fermion electrodynamics. The non-triviality of the bulk is demonstrated by a novel fermion number anomaly. See the full paper described here at http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.8339