Boson-fermion duality in four dimensions

Abstract: Dualities provide deep insight into physics by relating two seemingly distinct theories. Here we propose and elaborate on a novel duality between bosonic and fermionic theories in four spacetime dimensions. Starting with a Euclidean lattice action consisting of bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom and integrating out one of them alternatively, we derive a UV duality between a Wilson fermion with self-interactions and an XY model coupled to a compact U(1) gauge field. We find a continuous phase transition between topological and trivial insulators on the fermion side corresponding to Higgs and confinement phases on the boson side. The continuum limit of each lattice theory then leads to an IR duality between a free Dirac fermion and a scalar QED with the vacuum angle $\pi$. The resulting bosonic theory proves to incorporate a scalar boson and dyons as low-energy degrees of freedom and it is their three-body composite that realizes the Dirac fermion of the fermionic theory.