A study of 't Hooft and Wilson loops

An investigation is undertaken for 't Hooft loop operators in four-dimensional gauge theories. For the first time, a perimeter law is shown to be their behavior in weak coupling Wilson lattice (and continuum) non-abelian SU(N) gauge theories for all N. However, it is also argued that this perimeter law is poor criterion for quark confinement. Rather, it is suggested that non-leading long-distance behavior is what is crucial and relevant in distinguishing non-abelian from abelian (and hence confining from non-confining) theories. A new object, “the 't Hooft line”, is introduced to measure this non-leading behavior and is computed in strong coupling on the lattice. There, one finds magnetic screening characterized by a magnetic screening mass, m_s. It is shown to all orders in strong coupling that m_s is the glueball mass, a result which is expected to persist in weak coupling and in the continuum. Two further consequences of this work are that pure non-abelian gauge theories cannot be in a Higgs phase and that in such models that absence of massless physical particles implies confinement.Finally, non-leading behavior in Wilson loops is examined. The present picture of confinement suggests the absence of van der Waals forces in Yang-Mills theories.     

The vortex free energy in the screening phase of the Z(2) Higgs model

The vortex free energy was proposed to distinguish between the confinement and the Higgs phase (in the sense of 't Hooft) in lattice gauge theory, when matter fields are present that transform according to an arbitrary representation of the gauge group. In this paper I consider the Z(2) Higgs model and calculate the vortex free energy in the screening part of the confining/screening phase of Fradkin and Shenker. The result does not agree with the expected behavior that corresponds to the structure of the phase diagram. Therefore the vortex free energy is no longer a good indicator for confinement when matter fields transform non-trivially under the center of the gauge group (such as Z(2) Higgs scalars).     

Higgs and W mass on the lattice at strong gauge coupling

At infinite gauge coupling the gauge fields in the fundamental lattice SU(N) Higgs model can be integrated out exactly. In the resulting effective theory of the radial Higgs field we derive a string -like correlation function that represents the leading behavior of the W two-point function at small β. For large N we then compute the W-mass and the Higgs mass. These analytical results are qualitatively similar to what has been found in Monte Carlo simulations of the SU(2) model.     

The anomalous 3-boson couplings as an implication of the Higgs sector

We discuss the possible new electroweak interactions which may be generated by the Higgs sector at the scale of theZ mass. For this purpose, we give a set ofSU(2)×U(1) gauge invariant operators constructed in terms ofW, Z, γ and Higgs fields which in the unitary gauge describe all possible γWW andZWW anomalous couplings. The dimension of these operators varies from 6 to 12. This fact allows us to consider various scenaria for the manifestations of the New Physics. We conclude that the underlying dynamics induced by the Higgs sector can be tested through a model-independent amplitude analysis of gauge boson pair production at LEP2 and future colliders.     

A disorder parameter that test for confinement in gauge theories with quark fields

We propose to use a suitably defined vortex free energy as a disorder parameter in gauge field theories with matter fields. It is supposed to distinguish between the confinement phase, massless phase(s) and Higgs phase where they exist. The matter fields may transform according to an arbitrary representation of the gauge group. We compute the vortex free energy by series expansion for a Z₂ Higgs model and for SU(2) lattice models with quark or Higgs fields in the fundamental representation at strong coupling (confinement phase), and for the Z₂ Higgs model in the range of validity of low-temperature expansions (Higgs phase). The results are in agreement with the expected behavior.     

Critical bubbles and fluctuations at the electroweak phase transition

We discuss the critical bubbles of the electroweak phase transition using an effective high-temperature 3-dimensional action for the Higgs field ϕ. The separate integration of gauge and Goldstone boson degrees of freedom is conveniently described in the 't Hooft-Feynman covariant background gauge. The effective dimensionless gauge coupling g3 (T) z in the broken phase is well behaved throughout the phase transition. However, the behavior of the one-loop Z(ϕ) factors of the Higgs and gauge kinetic terms signalizes the breakdown of the derivative expansion and of the perturbative expansion for a range of small ϕ values increasing with the Higgs mass m_H Taking a functional S_z [ϕ] with constant Z(ϕ) = z instead of the full non-local effective action in some neighborhood of the saddle point we are calculating the critical bubbles for several temperatures. The fluctuation determinant is calculated to high accuracy using a variant of the heat kernel method. It gives a strong suppression of the transition rate compared to previous estimates.     

ZN Gauge theories on a lattice and quantum memory

In the present paper we shall study (2+1)-dimensional Z_N gauge theories on a lattice. It is shown that the gauge theories have two phases, one is a Higgs phase and the other is a confinement phase. We investigate low-energy excitation modes in the Higgs phase and clarify relationship between the Z_N gauge theories and Kitaev’s model for quantum memory and quantum computations. Then we study effects of random gauge couplings (RGC) which are identified with noise and errors in quantum computations by Kitaev’s model. By using a duality transformation, it is shown that time-independent RGC give no significant effects on the phase structure and the stability of quantum memory and computations. Then by using the replica methods, we study Z_N gauge theories with time-dependent RGC and show that nontrivial phase transitions occur by the RGC.     

Phase structure of a U(1) lattice gauge theory with dual gauge fields

We introduce a U(1) lattice gauge theory with dual gauge fields and study its phase structure. This system is partly motivated by unconventional superconductors like extended s-wave and d  -wave superconductors in the strongly-correlated electron systems and also studies of the t–J$t\text{–}J$ model in the slave-particle representation. In this theory, the “Cooper-pair” (or RVB spinon-pair) field is put on links of a cubic lattice due to strong on-site repulsion between original electrons in contrast to the ordinary s  -wave pair field on sites. This pair field behaves as a gauge field dual to the U(1) gauge field coupled with the hopping of electrons or quasi-particles of the t–J$t\text{–}J$ model, holons and spinons. By Monte Carlo simulations we study this lattice gauge model and find a first-order phase transition from the normal state to the Higgs (superconducting) phase. Each gauge field works as a Higgs field for the other gauge field. This mechanism requires no scalar fields in contrast to the ordinary Higgs mechanism. An explicit microscopic model is introduced, the low-energy effective theory of which is viewed as a special case of the present model.     

Mean field calculations and defect gases in lattice gauge theory

We investigate the relationship between local defects and the mean field method in lattice gauge theory. In particular we clarify the role of defects in establishing the equivalence between mean field calculations with and without gauge fixing. In two dimensions we derive the area law for the Wilson loop by a mean field calculation incorporating defects. We also establish a general rule about mean field variables which are appropriate to handle defects induced by an action that almost possesses a local symmetry group, and we apply it to theZ(2) Higgs model and to the mixedSU(2)-SO(3) model.     

Finite-temperature behavior of the lattice abelian Higgs model

We study phase transitions in the lattice version of the abelian Higgs model, a model which can exhibit both spontaneous symmetry breaking and confinement. When the Higgs charge is the basic U(1) unit, we find that the Higgs and confinement regions are not separated by a phase transition and form a single homogenous phase which we call the total screening phase. The model does not undergo a symmetry restoring phase transition at finite temperature.If the Higgs charge is some multiple of the basic unit the model follows the conventional wisdom: there are 3 phases (normal, Higgs and confinement) at zero temperature, two of which disappear above some critical point. We apply the lessons learned from the lattice Higgs model to understand the behavior of the weak interactions at high temperature.In a long appendix we give an intuitive physical picture for the Polyakov-Susskind quark liberating phase transition and show that it is related to the Hagedorn spectrum of a confining model. We end with a collection of effective field theory approximations to various lattice theories.     

Non-perturbative aspects in supersymmetric gauge theories

We review our present understanding of those non-perturbative features of supersymmetric gauge theories that are believed to determine the properties of their ground states (vacua). A wide variety of theories is discussed in detail: pure Yang-Mills, theories with massive or massless real matter fields, theories with chiral matter, both for SU(N) and for the case of a general compact gauge group (as for instance E₈). Depending on some general features of the theory under consideration, various (perhaps) unexpected phenomena are shown to occur. Among these the breakdown of the (perturbatively established) non-renormalization theorem, the occurrence of runaway vacua in certain limits, the spontaneous dynamical breaking of supersymmetry itself in some chiral theories. Throughout the report we restrict ourselves to the confining picture instanton method, occasionally complementing it with the information coming from chiral and supersymmetric Ward-Takahashi identities. We compare our results with the ones suggested earlier by effective Lagrangian methods and, only briefly, with those obtained by other groups in the Higgs picture.     

Can the nearly conformal sextet gauge model hide the Higgs impostor?

New results are reported from large scale lattice simulations of a frequently discussed strongly interacting gauge theory with a fermion flavor doublet in the two-index symmetric (sextet) representation of the SU(3) color gauge group. We find that the chiral condensate and the mass spectrum of the sextet model are consistent with chiral symmetry breaking in the limit of vanishing fermion mass. In contrast, sextet fermion mass deformations of spectral properties are not consistent with leading conformal scaling behavior near the critical surface of a conformal theory. A recent paper could not resolve the conformal fixed point of the gauge coupling from the slowly walking scenario of a very small nearly vanishing β-function (DeGrand et al. [3]). It is argued that overall consistency with our new results is resolved if the sextet model is close to the conformal window, staying outside with a very small non-vanishing β-function. The model would exhibit then the simplest composite Higgs mechanism leaving open the possibility of a light scalar state with quantum numbers of the Higgs impostor. It would emerge as the pseudo-Goldstone dilaton state from spontaneous symmetry breaking of scale invariance. We will argue that even without association with the dilaton, the scalar Higgs-like state can be light very close to the conformal window. A new Higgs project of sextet lattice simulations is outlined to resolve these important questions.     

Progress in lattice gauge theory

Two topics of lattice gauge theory are reviewed. They include string tension and β-function calculations by strong coupling Hamiltonian methods for SU(3) gauge fields in 3 + 1 dimensions, and a 1/N-expansion for discrete gauge and spin systems in all dimensions. The SU(3) calculations give solid evidence for the coexistence of quark confinement and asymptotic freedom in the renormalized continuum limit of the lattice theory. The crossover between weak and strong coupling behavior in the theory is seen to be a weak coupling but non-perturbative effect. Quantitative relationships between perturbative and non-perturbative renormalization schemes are obtained for the O(N) nonlinear sigma models in 1 + 1 dimensions as well as the range theory in 3 + 1 dimensions. Analysis of the strong coupling expansion of the β-function for gauge fields suggests that it has cuts in the complex 1/g²-plane. A toy model of such a cut structure which naturally explains the abruptness of the theory's crossover from weak to strong coupling is presented. The relation of these cuts to other approaches to gauge field dynamics is discussed briefly.The dynamics underlying first order phase transitions in a wide class of lattice gauge theories is exposed by considering a class of models-P(N) gauge theories - which are soluble in the N → ∞ limit and have non-trivial phase diagrams. The first order character of the phase transitions in Potts spin systems for N #62; 4 in 1 + 1 dimensions is explained in simple terms which generalizes to P(N) gauge systems in higher dimensions. The phase diagram of Ising lattice gauge theory coupled to matter fields is obtained in a $\text{1}\text{N}$ expansion. A one-plaquette model (1 time-0 space dimensions) with a first-order phase transitions in the N → ∞ limit is discussed.     

Vector Higgs portal dark matter and the invisible Higgs

The Higgs sector of the Standard Model offers a unique probe of the hidden sector. In this work, we explore the possibility of renormalizable Higgs couplings to the hidden sector vector fields which can constitute dark matter (DM). Abelian gauge sectors with minimal field content, necessary to render the gauge fields massive, have a natural Z₂ parity. This symmetry ensures stability of the vector fields making them viable dark matter candidates, while evading the usual electroweak constraints. We illustrate this idea with the Stückelberg and Higgs mechanisms. Vector DM is consistent with the WMAP, XENON100, and LHC constraints, while it can affect significantly the invisible Higgs decay. Due to the enhanced branching ratio for the Higgs decay into the longitudinal components of the vector field, the vector Higgs portal provides an efficient way to hide the Higgs at the LHC. This could be the reason why the latest combined ATLAS/CMS data did not bring evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson.     

Possible symmetry breaking patterns with totally symmetric and antisymmetric representations

Possible symmetry breaking patterns for SU(N) gauge theories with Higgs scalars in totally antisymmetric and symmetric representations of degree k are discussed by solving the extremum conditions.     

Supercompositeness from superstrings

String Unified Models based on the k = 1 level of the Kac-Moody Algebra, predict the existence of “exotic” new states which carry fractional electric charges. We analyse the possibility of considering these “exotics” as preonic matter which can be used to form the families and the gauge group breaking higgs scalars. It is proposed that such a formation may occur provided that these states transform non-trivially under a non-Abelian gauge group with a relatively large rank in order to confine them at a sufficiently large scale. Such a situation is natural in string derived unified models, since the role of the confining group can be played by (part of) the Hidden symmetry. As an example, we present a string derived toy model based on the SU(4) × SU(2) _L × SU(2) _R Pati-Salam gauge group.     

On the characterization of the higgs phase in lattice gauge theories

We consider Higgs models on a lattice in 3 or 4 dimensions. Higgs scalars are assumed to transform trivially under a finite subgroup Γ of the compact gauge groupG. We adopt 't Hooft's definition of the Higgs phase, it is characterized by a nonvanishing free energy per unit length (area) of a vortex in 3 (4) dimensions. By using a Peierls argument we show that the models are in the Higgs phase in this sense for suitable coupling constants.     

An algorithm for detecting abelian monopoles inSU 2-valued lattice gauge-Higgs systems

We present an algorithm which calculates the monopole number of anSU ₂-valued lattice gauge field, together with a lattice Higgs field, on a simplicial lattice of dimension ≧3. The calculation is gauge invariant. The expected value of the monopole density (for a fixed Higgs field) does not depend on the Higgs field. Partially supported by NSF grants DMS 8607168 and DMS 8907753 Partially supported by PSC-CUNY and by NSF grant DMS 8805485     

Topology of quantum gauge fields and duality (I): Yang-Mills-Higgs system in 2 + 1 dimensions

The basic role of the representation of the gauge group in characterizing the topological excitations of the vacuum is pointed out. For SU(N) gauge fields on a lattice, the topological excitations are monopoles in the adjoint representation of the dual group ¹SU(N). This leads to a dual representation of the Yang-Mills-Higgs system in 2 + 1 dimensions. For SU(3) the deal theory in a scalar theory with discrete Weyl symmetry S₃. In the presence of adjoint Higgs fields the Weyl symmetry is broken in the Higgs phase but restored by pseudo-particles in the confinement phase.