Related papers: Crystalline Confinement
The simulation of various properties of quantum field theories is rapidly becoming a testing ground for demonstrating the prowess of quantum algorithms. Some examples include the preparation of ground states, as well as the investigation of…
We study general properties of confinement phase transitions in the early universe. An observable gravitational wave signal from such transitions requires significant supercooling. However, in almost all understood examples of confining…
Gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions whose gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken to a finite group enjoy a quantum group symmetry which includes the residual gauge symmetry. This symmetry provides a framework in which fundamental excitations…
We introduce a spin ladder with discrete symmetries designed to emulate a two-dimensional spin-1/2 boson system at half-filling. Using global properties, such as the structure of topological defects, we establish a correspondence between…
The Goldstone theorem states that there should be a massless mode for each spontaneously broken symmetry generator. There is no such rotational mode in crystals, however superconducting quantum nematics should carry rotational Goldstone…
We consider, from several complementary perspectives, the physics of confinement and deconfinement in the 2+1 dimensional Georgi-Glashow model. Polyakov's monopole plasma and 't Hooft's vortex condensation are discussed first. We then…
The dual theory describing the 4D Coulomb gas of point-like magnetically charged objects, which confines closed electric strings, is considered. The respective generalization of the theory of confining strings to confining membranes is…
We show that gluodynamics in an external Abelian electromagnetic field should possess a deconfining phase transition at zero temperature. Our analytical estimation of the critical external field is based on the dual superconductor picture…
Quantum field theories of strongly interacting matter sometimes have a useful holographic description in terms of the variables of a gravitational theory in higher dimensions. This duality maps time dependent physics in the gauge theory to…
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a fundamental concept in many areas of physics, ranging from cosmology and particle physics to condensed matter. A prime example is the breaking of spatial translation symmetry, which underlies the formation…
Spontaneous particle-pair formation is a fundamental phenomenon in nature. It can, for example, appear when the potential energy between two particles increases with separation, as if they were connected by a tense string. Beyond a critical…
Lattice gauge theories (LGTs) describe fundamental interactions in particle physics. A central phenomenon in these theories is confinement, which binds quarks and antiquarks into hadrons through the formation of string-like flux tubes of…
The existence of a paradoxical supersolid phase of matter, possessing the apparently incompatible properties of crystalline order and superfluidity, was predicted 50 years ago. Solid helium was the natural candidate, but there supersolidity…
One of the most remarkable results of quantum mechanics is the fact that many-body quantum systems may exhibit phase transitions even at zero temperature. Quantum fluctuations, deeply rooted in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and not…
Strongly coupled theories are of phenomenological interest, for example as dark matter candidates. Theories that can undergo first order thermal phase transitions are particularly appealing as potential sources of a stochastic gravitational…
Quantum spin liquids are exotic phases of matter whose low-energy physics is described as the deconfined phase of an emergent gauge theory. With recent theory proposals and an experiment showing preliminary signs of $\mathbb{Z}_2$…
We numerically study $\mathbb{Z}_N$ lattice gauge theories in 4D as prototypical models of systems with $\mathbb{Z}_N$ 1-$\textit{form symmetry}$. For $N \geq 3$, we provide evidence that such systems exhibit not only the expected phases…
The simplest topologically ordered phase in 2+1D is the deconfined phase of $Z_2$ gauge theory, realized for example in the toric code. This phase permits a duality that exchanges electric and magnetic excitations (``$e$'' and ``$m$''…
Fundamental forces of Nature are described by field theories, also known as gauge theories, based on a local gauge invariance. The simplest of them is quantum electrodynamics (QED), which is an example of an Abelian gauge theory. Such…
We consider the bipartite entanglement entropy of ground states of extended quantum systems with a large degeneracy. Often, as when there is a spontaneously broken global Lie group symmetry, basis elements of the lowest-energy space form a…