Comments on Global Symmetries and Anomalies of 5d SCFTs

Abstract

We study various aspects of global symmetries in five-dimensional superconformal field theories. Whenever a supersymmetry-preserving relevant deformation is available, the infrared gauge theory description might exhibit a finite order mixed ’t Hooft anomaly between a 1-form symmetry and the instantonic symmetry. This anomaly constrains the flavor symmetry group acting faithfully on the SCFT and the consistency of certain RG flows. As an additional example, we consider the instructive case of three-dimensional \(\mathcal {N}=4\) SQED. Finally, we discuss the compatibility between conformal invariance and the presence of 1-form and 2-group global symmetries.