Generalized Families of QFTs

Abstract

RG flows and IR phases of QFTs can be constrained by generalized symmetries and their anomalies. Broken symmetries act on the space of coupling constants of families of theories, and can also have IR-constraining family anomalies. We generalize family anomaly considerations to cases of broken generalized/categorical symmetries, including higher-group and non-invertible symmetries. We consider the anomaly inflow and SymTFTs of such generalized families of QFTs, and their implications for RG flows and constraints on the IR phases. As examples, we apply family anomalies to study the IR phases of $4d$ QCD-like theories deformed by irrelevant, multi-fermion interactions.