Finite 2-group gauge theory and its 3+1D lattice realization

Abstract

In this work, we employ the Tannaka-Krein reconstruction to compute the quantum double $\mathcal D(\mathcal G)$ of a finite 2-group $\mathcal G$ as a Hopf monoidal category. We also construct a 3+1D lattice model from the Dijkgraaf-Witten TQFT functor for the 2-group $\mathcal G$, generalizing Kitaev's 2+1D quantum double model. Notably, the string-like local operators in this lattice model are shown to form $\mathcal D(\mathcal G)$. Specializing to $\mathcal G = \mathbb{Z}_2$, we demonstrate that the topological defects in the 3+1D toric code model are modules over $\mathcal D(\mathbb{Z}_2)$.