Orbifolds and Topological Defects

We study orbifolds of two-dimensional topological field theories using defects. If the TFT arises as the twist of a superconformal field theory, we recover results on the Neveu–Schwarz and Ramond sectors of the orbifold theory, as well as bulk-boundary correlators from a novel, universal perspective. This entails a structure somewhat weaker than ordinary TFT, which however still describes a sector of the underlying conformal theory. The case of B-twisted Landau–Ginzburg models is discussed in detail, where we compute charge vectors and superpotential terms for B-type branes. Our construction also works in the absence of supersymmetry and for generalised “orbifolds” that need not arise from symmetry groups. In general, this involves a natural appearance of Hochschild (co)homology in a 2-categorical setting, in which among other things we provide simple presentations of Serre functors and a further generalisation of the Cardy condition.