Breakdown Of Chiral Symmetry Research Articles

Gauge field fluctuation corrected QED3 effective action by fermionic particle-vortex duality

We present a non-perturbative framework for incorporating gauge field fluctuations into effective actions of QED3 in the infrared using fermionic particle-vortex duality. This approach is demonstrated through the applications to models containing N species of 2-component Dirac fermions in solvable and interpretable electromagnetic backgrounds, focusing on N = 1 or 2. For the N = 1 model, we establish a correspondence between fermion Casimir energy at finite density and the magnetic Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian, and further evaluate the corrections to their amplitudes. This predicts amplification of charge susceptibility and reduction of magnetic permeability. We additionally provide physical interpretations for each component of our calculation and offer alternative derivations based on energy density measurements in different characteristic lengths. For N = 2, we show that magnetic catalysis is erased in a U(1) × U(1) QED3, indicating no breakdown of chiral symmetry. Reasoning is offered based on the properties of the lowest Landau level wave functions.

Semiclassics with ’t Hooft flux background for QCD with 2-index quarks

We study quantum chromodynamics including the two-index symmetric or anti-symmetric quark (QCD(Sym/ASym)) on small ℝ2× T2 with a suitable magnetic flux. We first discuss the ’t Hooft anomaly of these theories and claim that discrete chiral symmetry should be spontaneously broken completely to satisfy the anomaly matching condition. The T2 compactification with the magnetic flux preserves the ’t Hooft anomaly, and the 2d effective theory is constrained by the same anomaly of 4d QCD(Sym/ASym). We demonstrate the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry using the dilute gas of center vortices, which confirms the prediction of the ’t Hooft anomaly. We also find that each vacuum maintains the charge conjugation symmetry, and this gives affirmative support for the nonperturbative large-N orientifold equivalence between QCD(Sym/ASym) and mathcal{N} = 1 supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory.

Thermal chiral anomaly in the magnetic-field-induced ideal Weyl phase of Bi1-xSbx.

The chiral anomaly is the predicted breakdown of chiral symmetry in a Weyl semimetal with monopoles of opposite chirality when an electric field is applied parallel to a magnetic field. It occurs because of charge pumping between monopoles of opposite chirality. Experimental observation of this fundamental effect is plagued by concerns about the current pathways. Here we demonstrate the thermal chiral anomaly, energy pumping between monopoles, in topological insulator bismuth-antimony alloys driven into an ideal Weyl semimetal state by a Zeeman field, with the chemical potential pinned at the Weyl points and in the absence of any trivial Fermi surface pockets. The experimental signature is a large enhancement of the thermal conductivity in an applied magnetic field parallel to the thermal gradient. This work demonstrates both pumping of energy and charge between the two Weyl points of opposite chirality and that they are related by the Wiedemann-Franz law.

Rotor Jackiw-Rebbi Model: A Cold-Atom Approach to Chiral Symmetry Restoration and Charge Confinement

Understanding the nature of confinement, as well as its relation with the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry, remains one of the long-standing questions in high-energy physics. The difficulty of this task stems from the limitations of current analytical and numerical techniques to address non-perturbative phenomena in non-Abelian gauge theories. In this work, we show how similar phenomena emerge in simpler models, and how these can be further investigated using state-of-the-art cold-atom quantum simulators. More specifically, we introduce the rotor Jackiw-Rebbi model, a (1+1)-dimensional quantum field theory where interactions between Dirac fermions are mediated by quantum rotors. Starting from a mixture of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice, we show how this quantum field theory emerges in the long-wavelength limit. For a wide and experimentally-relevant parameter regime, the Dirac fermions acquire a dynamical mass via the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry. Moreover, we study the effect of both quantum and thermal fluctuations, which lead to the phenomenon of chiral symmetry restoration. Finally, we uncover a confinement-deconfinement quantum phase transition, where meson-like fermions fractionalise into quark-like quasi-particles bound to topological solitons of the rotor field. The proliferation of these solitons at finite chemical potentials again serves to restore the chiral symmetry, yielding a clear analogy with the quark-gluon plasma in quantum chromodynamics, where this symmetry coexists with the deconfined fractional charges. Our results show how the interplay between these phenomena could be analyse in realistic atomic experiments.

Time-reversal symmetry breaking versus chiral symmetry breaking in twisted bilayer graphene

By applying a self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation, we show that the mechanism of dynamical symmetry breaking can account for the insulating phase that develops about the charge neutrality point of twisted bilayer graphene around the magic angle. ($i$) If the Coulomb interaction is screened by metallic gates, the opening of a gap between the lowest-energy valence and conduction bands proceeds through the breakdown of chiral symmetry at strong coupling. Increasing the dielectric screening, however, we find a critical coupling at which chiral symmetry breaking is suppressed, triggering a very strong signal for time-reversal symmetry breaking with Haldane mass. ($ii$) If the long-range tail of the Coulomb interaction is not screened, we see the appearance of yet a different dominant pattern at strong coupling, which is characterized by breaking the time-reversal invariance but with opposite flux in the two sublattices of each carbon layer, with the consequent valley symmetry breaking. In this case a gap is also opened in the Dirac cones, but superposed to the splitting of the degeneracy of the low-energy bands at the $K$ points of the moir\'e Brillouin zone.

Supersolid phase of cold atoms

Supersolid phase is a phase of matter that is characterized by the combination of the off-diagonal long-range order of superfluid and the diagonal long-range order of solid. Cold atoms with spin–orbit-coupling, contact interaction and long-range interaction can provide systems for the research of supersolid phase. Under the effect of spin-dependent potential and spin–orbit-coupling, hard-core ultra-cold atoms with contact interaction can be shown to construct supersolid phase. The combination of soft-core long-range interaction and spin–orbit coupling can establish exotic supersolid phase with spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry. The optical Bragg scattering of cold atoms in optical lattices can be used to detect supersolid phase. The study of supersolid phase will be helpful to the researches of matter phases.

Phase structure of the interacting Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and the relationship with the Gross-Neveu model on lattice

The $N$-flavor interacting Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (i-SSH) model realizable in cold atoms in an optical lattice is studied. We clarify the relationship between the i-SSH model and the Chiral-Gross-Neveu-Wilson (CGNW) model. Following the previous study of the CGNW model in the high-energy physics community, the ground-state phases of the i-SSH model are investigated and interpreted from the viewpoint of the phases of the CGNW model. The interaction effect on the i-SSH model, belonging to the topological BDI class, is grasped by following the view of the dynamical breakdown of chiral symmetry in the CGNW model. Furthermore, we compare the large-$N$ ground-state phase diagram with that of the $N=1$ case obtained by exact diagonalization, and then we propose a tabletop cold-atom quantum simulator to test the model.

Formula omitted] “Nuclear Physics” with ultracold Gases

An ab initio calculation of nuclear physics from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental SU(3) gauge theory of the strong interaction, remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we discuss the emergence of key elements of nuclear physics using an SO(3) lattice gauge theory as a toy model for QCD. We show that this model is accessible to state-of-the-art quantum simulation experiments with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. First, we demonstrate that our model shares characteristic many-body features with QCD, such as the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry, its restoration at finite baryon density, as well as the existence of few-body bound states. Then we show that in the one-dimensional case, the dynamics in the gauge invariant sector can be encoded as a spin S=32 Heisenberg model, i.e., as quantum magnetism, which has a natural realization with bosonic mixtures in optical lattices, and thus sheds light on the connection between non-Abelian gauge theories and quantum magnetism.

Dp-brane Dynamics and Thermalization in Type IIB Ben Ami-Kuperstein-Sonnenschein Models

We extend and complete our analysis arXiv:1608.02380 and study the induced world volume metrics and Hawking temperatures of all type IIB rotating probe Dp-branes, dual to the temperature of different flavors at finite R-charge, in the Ben Ami–Kuperstein–Sonnenschein holographic models including the effects of spontaneous conformal and chiral flavor symmetry breakdown. The model embeds type IIB probe flavor Dp-branes into the Klebanov-Witten gravity dual of conformal gauge theory, with the embedding parameter, given by the minimal radial extension of the probes, dual to the IR scale of conformal and chiral flavor symmetry breakdown. We show that when the minimal extension is positive definite, the induced world volume metrics of type IIB rotating probe branes admit thermal horizons and Hawking temperatures despite the absence of black holes in the bulk subject to the world volume and topology of the nontrivial internal cycle wrapped by the probe. We also derive the energy–stress tensor of the thermal probes and study their backreaction and energy dissipation. We show that at the IR scale the backreaction is nonnegligible and find the energy can flow from the probes to the bulk, dual to the energy dissipation from the flavor sectors into the gauge theory.

D7-brane dynamics and thermalization in the Kuperstein–Sonnenschein model

We study the temperature of rotating probe D7-branes, dual to the temperature of flavored quarks, in the Kuperstein–Sonnenschein holographic model including the effects of spontaneous breakdown of the conformal and chiral flavor symmetry. The model embeds probe D7-branes into the Klebanov–Witten gravity dual of conformal gauge theory, with the embedding parameter, given by the minimal radial extension of the probe, setting the IR scale of conformal and chiral flavor symmetry breakdown. We show that when the minimal extension is positive definite and additional spin is turned on, the induced world volume metrics on the probe admit thermal horizons and Hawking temperatures despite the absence of black holes in the bulk. We find the scale and behavior of the temperature in flavored quarks are controlled dramatically by the IR scale of symmetry breaking, and by the strength and sort of external fields. We also derive the energy-stress tensor of the rotating probe and study its backreaction and energy dissipation. We show that at the IR scale the backreaction is nonnegligible and find the energy can flow from the probe to the bulk, dual to the energy dissipation from the flavor sector into the gauge theory.

Quark-gluon vertex: A perturbation theory primer and beyond

There has been growing evidence that the infrared enhancement of the form factors defining the full quark-gluon vertex plays an important role in realizing a dynamical breakdown of chiral symmetry in quantum chromodynamics, leading to the observed spectrum and properties of hadrons. Both the lattice and the Schwinger-Dyson communities have begun to calculate these form factors in various kinematical regimes of momenta involved. A natural consistency check for these studies is that they should match onto the perturbative predictions in the ultraviolet, where non-perturbative effects mellow down. In this article, we carry out a numerical analysis of the one-loop result for all the form factors of the quark-gluon vertex. Interestingly, even the one-loop results qualitatively encode most of the infrared enhancement features expected of their non-perturbative counter parts. We analyze various kinematical configurations of momenta: symmetric, on-shell and asymptotic. The on-shell limit enables us to compute anomalous chromomagnetic moment of quarks. The asymptotic results have implications for the multiplicative renormalizability of the quark propagator and its connection with the Landau-Khalatnikov-Fradkin transformations, allowing us to analyze and compare various Ans$\ddot{a}$tze proposed so far.

Diabatic crossing of chiral “twins” in the odd-oddAg106nucleus: A theoretical perspective

A systematic study of both the observed positive-parity magnetic rotation band and the negative-parity $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}I=1$ doublet bands in an odd-odd $^{106}\mathrm{Ag}$ nucleus is carried out. The negative-parity doublet bands depict some unusual features that have not been observed in any isotope in the mass $A=100$ region. For instance, (i) the moment of inertia of the partner band is quite different from that of the yrast band, and (ii) these bands cross each other at an angular momentum of $I=14\ensuremath{\hbar}$. Also, the observed significantly large but constant $B(M1)$ transitions confirm that the strong $M1$ transitions are being reinforced by the contributions from collective rotation. To explain these features, a collective model has been developed whose kinetic and potential energies are extracted from the tilted-axis cranking model. Instead of the triaxial parameter $\ensuremath{\gamma}$, a second-order phase transition is found to be responsible for the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry. Analytical solution of the Schr\odinger equation has generated a doublet nondegenerate eigenvalue spectrum. The ensuing model results based on the two-quasiparticle configuration $\ensuremath{\pi}{g}_{\frac{9}{2}}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}\ensuremath{\nu}{h}_{\frac{11}{2}}$ exhibit similarities with many observed features of the negative-parity doublet bands and hence confirm their chiral character. The cranking mass parameter in kinetic energy plays an important role in diabatic crossing between these emerged chiral twin bands.

Lattice study on quantum-mechanical dynamics of two-color QCD with six light flavors

We investigate the chiral properties of SU(2) gauge theory with six flavors, i.e. six light Dirac fermions in the fundamental representations by lattice simulation, and point out that the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry does not occur in this system. The quark mass dependence of the mesonic spectrum provides an evidence for such a possibility. The decay constant tends to be increased by the finite size effect, which is opposite to the behavior predicted by chiral perturbation theory and indicates that the long distance dynamics in the six-flavor theory could be different from the theory with chiral symmetry breaking. The subtracted chiral condensate, whose utility is demonstrated by the simulation of two-flavor theory, is shown to vanish in the chiral limit within the precision of available data.

Large-Ncgauge theory and chiral random matrix theory

We discuss how the $1/{N}_{c}$ expansion and the chiral random matrix theory ($\ensuremath{\chi}\mathrm{RMT}$) can be used in the study of large-${N}_{c}$ gauge theories. We first clarify the parameter region in which each of these two approaches is valid. While the fermion mass $m$ is fixed in the standard large-${N}_{c}$ arguments ('t Hooft large-${N}_{c}$ limit), $m$ must be scaled appropriately with a certain negative power of ${N}_{c}$ in order for the gauge theories to be described by the $\ensuremath{\chi}\mathrm{RMT}$. Then, although these two limits are not compatible in general, we show that the breakdown of chiral symmetry can be detected by combining the large-${N}_{c}$ argument and the $\ensuremath{\chi}\mathrm{RMT}$ with some care. As a concrete example, we numerically study the four-dimensional $SU({N}_{c})$ gauge theory with ${N}_{f}=2$ heavy adjoint fermions, introduced as the center symmetry preserver keeping the infrared physics intact, on a ${2}^{4}$ lattice. By looking at the low-lying eigenvalues of the overlap-Dirac operator for a massless probe fermion in the adjoint representation, we find that the chiral symmetry is indeed broken with the expected breaking pattern. This result reproduces a well-known fact that the chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken in the pure $SU({N}_{c})$ gauge theory in the large-${N}_{c}$ and the large-volume limit and therefore supports the validity of the combined approach. We also provide an interpretation of the gap and unexpected ${N}_{c}$ scaling, both of which are observed in the Dirac spectrum.

Burgers-like equation for spontaneous breakdown of the chiral symmetry in QCD

We link the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry in Euclidean QCD to the collision of spectral shock waves in the vicinity of zero eigenvalue of the Dirac operator. The mechanism, originating from complex Burgerʼs-like equation for viscid, pressureless, one-dimensional flows of eigenvalues, is similar to the recently observed weak-strong coupling phase transition in large Nc Yang–Mills theory. The spectral viscosity is proportional to the inverse size of the random matrix that replaces the Dirac operator in the universal (ergodic) regime. We obtain the exact scaling function and critical exponents of the chiral phase transition for the averaged characteristic polynomial for Nc⩾3 QCD. We reinterpret our results in terms of known properties of chiral random matrix models and lattice data.

Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking as condensation of dynamical chirality

The occurrence of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking (SChSB) is equivalent to sufficient abundance of Dirac near-zeromodes. However, dynamical mechanism leading to breakdown of chiral symmetry should be naturally reflected in chiral properties of the modes. Here we offer such connection, presenting evidence that SChSB in QCD proceeds via the appearance of modes exhibiting dynamical tendency for local chiral polarization. These modes form a band of finite width Λch (chiral polarization scale) around the surface of otherwise anti-polarized Dirac sea, and condense. Λch characterizes the dynamics of the breaking phenomenon and can be converted to a quark mass scale, thus offering conceptual means to determine which quarks of nature are governed by broken chiral dynamics. It is proposed that, within the context of SU(3) gauge theories with fundamental Dirac quarks, mode condensation is equivalent to chiral polarization. This makes Λch an “order parameter” of SChSB, albeit without local dynamical field representation away from chiral limit. Several uses of these features, both at zero and finite temperature, are discussed. Our initial estimates are Λch≈150 MeV (Nf=0), Λch≈80 MeV (Nf=2+1, physical point), and that the strange quark is too heavy to be crucially influenced by broken chiral symmetry.

Breakdown of chiral symmetry during saturation of the Tayler instability

We study spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry during the nonlinear evolution of the Tayler instability. We start with an initial steady state of zero helicity. Within linearized perturbation calculations, helical perturbations of this initial state have the same growth rate for either sign of helicity. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the fully nonlinear equations, however, show that an infinitesimal excess of one sign of helicity in the initial perturbation gives rise to a saturated helical state. We further show that this symmetry breaking can be described by weakly nonlinear finite-amplitude equations with undetermined coefficients which can be deduced solely from symmetry consideration. By fitting solutions of the amplitude equations to data from DNS, we further determine the coefficients of the amplitude equations.

ENTROPY IN QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS

We review the role of zero-temperature entropy in several closely-related contexts in QCD. The first is entropy associated with disordered condensates, including [Formula: see text]. The second is effective vacuum entropy arising from QCD solitons such as center vortices, yielding confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. The third is entanglement entropy, which is entropy associated with a pure state, such as the QCD vacuum, when the state is partially unobserved and unknown. Typically, entanglement entropy of an unobserved three-volume scales not with the volume but with the area of its bounding surface. The fourth manifestation of entropy in QCD is the configurational entropy of light-particle world-lines and flux tubes; we argue that this entropy is critical for understanding how confinement produces chiral symmetry breakdown, as manifested by a dynamically-massive quark, a massless pion, and a [Formula: see text] condensate.

QCD Chiral Restoration at Finite T Under the Magnetic Field

We investigate the chiral restoration at finite temperature $(T)$ under the strong external magnetic field $\vec{B}=B_{0}\hat{z}$ of the SU(2) light-flavor QCD matter. We employ the instanton-liquid QCD vacuum configuration accompanied with the linear Schwinger method for inducing the magnetic field. The Harrington-Shepard caloron solution is used to modify the instanton parameters, i.e. the average instanton size $(\bar{\rho})$ and inter-instanton distance $(\bar{R})$, as functions of $T$. In addition, we include the meson-loop corrections (MLC) as the large-$N_{c}$ corrections because they are critical for reproducing the universal chiral restoration pattern. We present the numerical results for the constituent-quark mass as well as chiral condensate which signal the spontaneous breakdown of chiral-symmetry (SB$\chi$S), as functions of $T$ and $B$. Besides we find that the changes for the $F_\pi$ and $m_\pi$ due to the magnetic field is relatively small, in comparison to those caused by the finite $T$ effect.

Axial anomalies of Lifshitz fermions

AbstractWe compute the axial anomaly of a Lifshitz fermion theory with anisotropic scaling z = 3 which is minimally coupled to geometry in 3+1 space‐time dimensions. We find that the result is identical to the relativistic case using path integral methods. An independent verification is provided by showing with spectral methods that the η‐invariant of the Dirac and Lifshitz fermion operators in three dimensions are equal. Thus, by the integrated form of the anomaly, the index of the Dirac operator still accounts for the possible breakdown of chiral symmetry in non‐relativistic theories of gravity. We apply this framework to the recently constructed gravitational instanton backgrounds of Hořava–Lifshitz theory and find that the index is non‐zero provided that the space‐time foliation admits leaves with harmonic spinors. Using Hitchin's construction of harmonic spinors on Berger spheres, we obtain explicit results for the index of the fermion operator on all such gravitational instanton backgrounds with SU(2) × U(1) isometry. In contrast to the instantons of Einstein gravity, chiral symmetry breaking becomes possible in the unimodular phase of Hořava–Lifshitz theory arising at λ = 1/3 provided that the volume of space is bounded from below by the ratio of the Ricci to Cotton tensor couplings raised to the third power. Some other aspects of the anomalies in non‐relativistic quantum field theories are also discussed.