Fractons on curved spacetime in 2 + 1 dimensions

Abstract

We study dipole Chern–Simons theory with and without a cosmological constant in 2 + 1 dimensions. We write the theory in a second order formulation and show that this leads to a fracton gauge theory coupled to Aristotelian geometry which can also be coupled to matter. This coupling exhibits the remarkable property of generalizing dipole gauge invariance to curved spacetimes, without placing any limitations on the possible geometries. We also use the second order formulation to construct a higher dimensional generalization of the action. Finally, for the (2 + 1)-dimensional Chern–Simons theory we find solutions and interpret these as electric monopoles, analyze their charges and argue that the asymptotic symmetries are infinite-dimensional.