The past decade has seen a remarkable evolution of the central notion of symmetry in mathematical physics.  The new framework that has emerged encompasses not only symmetries captured by a discrete or continuous group, but also more general notions of symmetry encoded in more sophisticated mathematical structures such as higher groups and fusion categories and employs state of the art developments in topological quantum field theory (TQFT). This emerging viewpoint is known as “categorical symmetry” and has led to a paradigm shift in how researchers from disparate fields organise and classify quantum field theories.

The aim of this workshop was to bring together researchers from both physics — in topological quantum field theory, high energy physics, and condensed matter — and mathematics — higher categories, representation theory, and topology — to report on recent progress and open questions in the study of generalised notions of symmetry.

Schedule

Summer school: Monday 10 – Friday 14 June. 

Workshop: Monday 17 – Friday 21 June.

*Please note the following programme is subject to change. For workshop porgramme please visit this webpage.