Categorical Symmetries at Criticality

Abstract: We study the concept of "categorical symmetry" introduced recently, which in the most basic sense refers to a pair of dual symmetries, such as the Ising symmetries of the $1d$ quantum Ising model and its self-dual counterpart. In this manuscript we study discrete categorical symmetry at higher dimensional critical points and gapless phases. At these selected gapless states of matter, we can evaluate the behavior of categorical symmetries analytically. We analyze the categorical symmetry at the following examples of criticality: (1) Lifshit critical point of a $(2+1)d$ quantum Ising system; (2) $(3+1)d$ photon phase as an intermediate gapless phase between the topological order and the confined phase of 3d $Z_2$ quantum gauge theory; (3) $2d$ and $3d$ examples of systems with both categorical symmetries (either 0-form or 1-form categorical symmetries) and subsystem symmetries. We demonstrate that at some of these gapless states of matter the categorical symmetries have very different behavior from the nearby gapped phases.