Symmetry enhancement, symmetry-protected topological absorption, and duality in QED₃

Quantum electrodynamics in 2 + 1 dimensions (QED₃) with two Dirac fermions displays time reversal symmetry, nontrivial SPT phases, and anomalies. The fate of this theory in its strongly coupled regime has been debated extensively. Surprisingly, we find that gluing together the phase diagrams of two standard Wilson-Fisher O(4) theories suffices to reproduce all the SPT phases, anomalies, and semiclassical limits. A central mechanism behind it is “SPT absorption.” The patching of the O(4) transitions makes very concrete predictions for the behavior of the theory in its strongly coupled limits; for instance, the θ = π sigma model with S³ topology appears due to monopole condensation.