{
  "abstract": "Generalized symmetries are sensitive to the tangential structure of spacetime. We study this interplay for massless QED on oriented non-spin four-manifolds, where the photon becomes a spin$^c$ connection and the path integral sums over spin$^c$ structures. The shifted flux quantization extends the magnetic 1-form symmetry into a $w_2$-twisted 1-form symmetry: its $2π$ rotation acts as a gravitational sign, fixed by the normal bundle of the surface the operator wraps. The obstruction to treating it as an ordinary magnetic 1-form symmetry is an order-two mixed magnetic-gravitational anomaly, which is classified by reduced oriented bordism and detected on the Wu manifold. In a fixed spin$^c$ sector, this anomaly is removable by a counterterm, so it is a property of the sum over spin$^c$ structures. We discuss its consequences for gapped, Coulomb, and Higgs phases. The chiral anomaly is governed by the index of the spin$^c$ Dirac operator, so rational chiral defects carry gravitational as well as electromagnetic responses. A spin$^c$ Hall topological field theory cancels the electromagnetic part but leaves a framing anomaly. At the level of anomaly inflow, this is canceled for every rational angle by stacking a neutral, generally noninvertible Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev layer. The same framing subtlety affects the chiral defects of QED on curved spin manifolds. The complex projective plane illustrates each of these features explicitly.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.38907",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Michele Del Zotto"
    },
    {
      "name": "Vivek Saxena"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a4dwxgrapj995.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.38907",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "a4dwxgrapj995",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38907",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.str-el"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "math-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "math.MP"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.38907",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-28",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a4dwxgrapj995.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:36:23Z",
      "native_id": "2610.38907",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.38907"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "mathematics",
      "origin": "arxiv:math-ph",
      "subfield": "mathematical-physics"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.str-el",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-th",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Generalized Symmetries of QED$_4$ on Non-Spin Manifolds",
  "title_text": "Generalized Symmetries of QED_4 on Non-Spin Manifolds",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:20:50Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a4dwxgrapj995",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}