Higher-form symmetries and 3-group in axion electrodynamics

We study higher-form symmetries in a low-energy effective theory of a massless axion coupled with a photon in (3 + 1) dimensions. It is shown that the higher-form symmetries of this system are accompanied by a semistrict 3-group (2-crossed module) structure, which can be found by the correlation functions of symmetry generators of the higher-form symmetries. We argue that the Witten effect and anomalous Hall effect in the axion electrodynamics can be described in terms of 3-group transformations. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.