Direct evidence for a Coulombic phase in monopole-suppressed SU(2) lattice gauge theory

Further evidence is presented for the existence of a non-confining phase at weak coupling in SU(2) lattice gauge theory. Using Monte Carlo simulations with the standard Wilson action, gauge-invariant SO(3)–Z2 monopoles, which are strong-coupling lattice artifacts, have been seen to undergo a percolation transition exactly at the phase transition previously seen using Coulomb gauge methods, with an infinite lattice critical point near β=3.2$\beta =3.2$. The theory with both Z2 vortices and monopoles and SO(3)–Z2 monopoles eliminated is simulated in the strong-coupling (β=0$\beta =0$) limit on lattices up to 60⁴. Here, as in the high-β phase of the Wilson-action theory, finite size scaling shows it spontaneously breaks the remnant symmetry left over after Coulomb gauge fixing. Such a symmetry breaking precludes the potential from having a linear term. The monopole restriction appears to prevent the transition to a confining phase at any β  . Direct measurement of the instantaneous Coulomb potential shows a Coulombic form with moderately running coupling possibly approaching an infrared fixed point of α∼1.4$\alpha \sim 1.4$. The Coulomb potential is measured to 50 lattice spacings and 2 fm. A short-distance fit to the 2-loop perturbative potential is used to set the scale. High precision at such long distances is made possible through the use of open boundary conditions, which was previously found to cut random and systematic errors of the Coulomb gauge fixing procedure dramatically. The Coulomb potential agrees with the gauge-invariant interquark potential measured with smeared Wilson loops on periodic lattices as far as the latter can be practically measured with similar statistics data.     

Massive 3-loop ladder diagrams for quarkonic local operator matrix elements

3-loop diagrams of the ladder-type, which emerge for local quarkonic twist-2 operator matrix elements, are computed directly for general values of the Mellin variable N using Appell-function representations and applying modern summation technologies provided by the package Sigma and the method of hyperlogarithms. In some of the diagrams generalized harmonic sums with ξ∈{1,1/2,2}$\xi \in \{1,1/2,2\}$ emerge beyond the usual nested harmonic sums. As the asymptotic representation of the corresponding integrals shows, the generalized sums conspire giving well behaved expressions for large values of N  . These diagrams contribute to the 3-loop heavy flavor Wilson coefficients of the structure functions in deep-inelastic scattering in the region Q²?m²$Q^2?m^2$.     

Optical Abelian lattice gauge theories

We discuss a general framework for the realization of a family of Abelian lattice gauge theories, i.e., link models or gauge magnets, in optical lattices. We analyze the properties of these models that make them suitable for quantum simulations. Within this class, we study in detail the phases of a U(1)$U\left(1\right)$-invariant lattice gauge theory in 2+1$2+1$ dimensions, originally proposed by P. Orland. By using exact diagonalization, we extract the low-energy states for small lattices, up to 4×4$4\times 4$. We confirm that the model has two phases, with the confined entangled one characterized by strings wrapping around the whole lattice. We explain how to study larger lattices by using either tensor network techniques or digital quantum simulations with Rydberg atoms loaded in optical lattices, where we discuss in detail a protocol for the preparation of the ground-state. We propose two key experimental tests that can be used as smoking gun of the proper implementation of a gauge theory in optical lattices. These tests consist in verifying the absence of spontaneous (gauge) symmetry breaking of the ground-state and the presence of charge confinement. We also comment on the relation between standard compact U(1)$U\left(1\right)$ lattice gauge theory and the model considered in this paper.     

Quantum criticality and Yang–Mills gauge theory

We present a family of nonrelativistic Yang–Mills gauge theories in D+1$D+1$ dimensions whose free-field limit exhibits quantum critical behavior with gapless excitations and dynamical critical exponent z=2$z=2$. The ground state wavefunction is intimately related to the partition function of relativistic Yang–Mills in D   dimensions. The gauge couplings exhibit logarithmic scaling and asymptotic freedom in the upper critical spacetime dimension, equal to 4+1$4+1$. The theories can be deformed in the infrared by a relevant operator that restores Poincaré invariance as an accidental symmetry. In the large-N limit, our nonrelativistic gauge theories can be expected to have weakly curved gravity duals.     

Decay widths of lowest massive Regge excitations of open strings

With the advent of the LHC there is widespread interest in the discovery potential for physics beyond the standard model. In TeV-scale open string theory, the new physics can be manifest in the excitation and decay of new resonant structures, corresponding to Regge recurrences of standard model particles. An essential input for the prediction of invariant mass spectra of the decay products (which could serve to identify the resonance as a string excitation) are the partial and total widths of the decay products. We present a parameter-free calculation of these widths for the first Regge recurrence of the SU(3)$\mathit{SU}(3)$ gluon octet, of the U(1)$U(1)$ gauge boson which accompanies gluons in D-brane constructions, and of the quark triplet.     

Mini little Higgs and dark matter

We construct a little Higgs model with the most minimal extension of the standard model gauge group by an extra U(1)$U(1)$ gauge symmetry. For specific charge assignments of scalars, an approximate U(3)$U(3)$ global symmetry appears in the cutoff-squared scalar mass terms generated from gauge bosons at one-loop level. Hence, the Higgs boson, identified as a pseudo-Goldstone boson of the broken global symmetry, has its mass radiatively protected up to scales of 5–10 TeV. In this model, a Z₂$Z_2$ symmetry, ensuring the two U(1)$U(1)$ gauge groups to be identical, also makes the extra massive neutral gauge boson stable and a viable dark matter candidate with a promising prospect of direct detection.     

The 't Hooft–Polyakov monopole in the presence of a 't Hooft operator

We present explicit BPS field configurations representing one non-Abelian monopole with one minimal weight 't Hooft operator insertion. We explore the SO(3)$\mathit{SO}(3)$ and SU(2)$\mathit{SU}(2)$ gauge groups. In the case of SU(2)$\mathit{SU}(2)$ gauge group the minimal 't Hooft operator can be completely screened by the monopole. If the gauge group is SO(3)$\mathit{SO}(3)$, however, such screening is impossible. In the latter case we observe a different effect of the gauge symmetry enhancement in the vicinity of the 't Hooft operator.     

Real forms of complex higher spin field equations and new exact solutions

We formulate four-dimensional higher spin gauge theories in spacetimes with signature (4−p,p)$(4-p,p)$ and non-vanishing cosmological constant. Among them are chiral models in Euclidean (4,0)$(4,0)$ and Kleinian (2,2)$(2,2)$ signature involving half-flat gauge fields. Apart from the maximally symmetric solutions, including de Sitter spacetime, we find: (a) SO(4−p,p)$\mathit{SO}(4-p,p)$ invariant deformations, depending on one continuous and infinitely many discrete parameters, including a degenerate metric of rank one; (b) non-maximally symmetric solutions with vanishing Weyl tensors and higher spin gauge fields, that differ from the maximally symmetric solutions in the auxiliary field sector; and (c) solutions of the chiral models furnishing higher spin generalizations of type D gravitational instantons, with an infinite tower of Weyl tensors proportional to totally symmetric products of two principal spinors. These are apparently the first exact 4D solutions with non-vanishing massless higher spin fields.     

Infinitely many shape invariant discrete quantum mechanical systems and new exceptional orthogonal polynomials related to the Wilson and Askey–Wilson polynomials

Two sets of infinitely many exceptional orthogonal polynomials related to the Wilson and Askey–Wilson polynomials are presented. They are derived as the eigenfunctions of shape invariant and thus exactly solvable quantum mechanical Hamiltonians, which are deformations of those for the Wilson and Askey–Wilson polynomials in terms of a degree ?   (?=1,2,…$?=1,2,\dots$) eigenpolynomial. These polynomials are exceptional in the sense that they start from degree ??1$??1$ and thus not constrained by any generalisation of Bochner's theorem.     

Emergent Horava gravity in graphene

First of all, we reconsider the tight-binding model of monolayer graphene, in which the variations of the hopping parameters are allowed. We demonstrate that the emergent 2D$2D$ Weitzenbock geometry as well as the emergent U(1)$U\left(1\right)$ gauge field appear. The emergent gauge field is equal to the linear combination of the components of the zweibein. Therefore, we actually deal with the gauge fixed version of the emergent 2+1$2+1$   D$D$ teleparallel gravity. In particular, we work out the case, when the variations of the hopping parameters are due to the elastic deformations, and relate the elastic deformations with the emergent zweibein. Next, we investigate the tight-binding model with the varying intralayer hopping parameters for the multilayer graphene with the ABC$ABC$ stacking. In this case the emergent 2D$2D$ Weitzenbock geometry and the emergent U(1)$U\left(1\right)$ gauge field appear as well, and the emergent low energy effective field theory has the anisotropic scaling.     

Chern–Simons–Rozansky–Witten topological field theory

We construct and study a new topological field theory in three dimensions. It is a hybrid between Chern–Simons and Rozansky–Witten theory and can be regarded as a topologically-twisted version of the N=4$N=4$d=3$d=3$ supersymmetric gauge theory recently discovered by Gaiotto and Witten. The model depends on a gauge group G and a hyper-Kähler manifold X with a tri-holomorphic action of G. In the case when X is an affine space, we show that the model is equivalent to Chern–Simons theory whose gauge group is a supergroup. This explains the role of Lie superalgebras in the construction of Gaiotto and Witten. For general X, our model appears to be new. We describe some of its properties, focusing on the case when G is simple and X is the cotangent bundle of the flag variety of G. In particular, we show that Wilson loops are labeled by objects of a certain category which is a quantum deformation of the equivariant derived category of coherent sheaves on X.     

The fate of conformal symmetry in the non-linear Schrödinger theory

The free Schrödinger theory in d   space dimensions is a non-relativistic conformal field theory. The interacting non-linear theory preserves this symmetry in specific numbers of dimensions at the classical (tree) level. This holds in particular for the |Φ|⁴${|\Phi |}^4$-theory in d=2$d=2$. We compute the full quantum corrections to the 1PI 4-point function in d=2−?$d=2-\mathrm{?}$ dimensions and find a non-trivial β  -function completely given by the 1-loop result. We exhibit an explicit Ward-identity showing that scale-invariance is broken in the limit d=2$d=2$ by an anomalous contribution proportional to the β-function.