Surface defects and symmetries

Abstract

In quantum field theory, defects of various codimensions are natural ingredients and carry a lot of interesting information. In this contribution we concentrate on topological quantum field theories in three dimensions, with a particular focus on Dijkgraaf-Witten theories with abelian gauge group. Surface defects in Dijkgraaf-Witten theories have applications in solid state physics, topological quantum computing and conformal field theory. We explain that symmetries in these topological field theories are naturally defined in terms of invertible topological surface defects and are thus Brauer-Picard groups.