Classical Gauge Field Research Articles

On Yang–Mills fields from anti-de Sitter spaces

Motivated by some recent progress involving a non-compact gauge group, we obtain classical gauge fields using non-compact foliations of anti-de Sitter space in 4 dimensions (required dimensionality for conformal invariance of Yang–Mills theory) and transfer these to Minkowski spacetime using a series of conformal maps. This construction also builds upon some previous works involving SU(2) gauge group in that we now use its non-compact counterpart SU(1, 1) here. We note down gauge fields in both Abelian as well as non-Abelian settings and find them to be divergent at some hyperboloid, which is a hypersurface of co-dimension 1 inside the conformal boundary of AdS4. In spite of this hurdle we find a physically relevant field configuration in the Abelian case, reproducing a known result.

Lieb-Schultz-Mattis, Luttinger, and 't Hooft - anomaly matching in lattice systems

We analyze lattice Hamiltonian systems whose global symmetries have ’t Hooft anomalies. As is common in the study of anomalies, they are probed by coupling the system to classical background gauge fields. For flat fields (vanishing field strength), the nonzero spatial components of the gauge fields can be thought of as twisted boundary conditions, or equivalently, as topological defects. The symmetries of the twisted Hilbert space and their representations capture the anomalies. We demonstrate this approach with a number of examples. In some of them, the anomalous symmetries are internal symmetries of the lattice system, but they do not act on-site. (We clarify the notion of “on-site action.”) In other cases, the anomalous symmetries involve lattice translations. Using this approach we frame many known and new results in a unified fashion. In this work, we limit ourselves to 1+1d systems with a spatial lattice. In particular, we present a lattice system that flows to the c=1c=1 compact boson system with any radius (no BKT transition) with the full internal symmetry of the continuum theory, with its anomalies and its T-duality. As another application, we analyze various spin chain models and phrase their Lieb-Shultz-Mattis theorem as an ’t Hooft anomaly matching condition. We also show in what sense filling constraints like Luttinger theorem can and cannot be viewed as reflecting an anomaly. As a by-product, our understanding allows us to use information from the continuum theory to derive some exact results in lattice model of interest, such as the lattice momenta of the low-energy states.

External gauge field-coupled quantum dynamics: Gauge choices, Heisenberg algebra representations and gauge invariance in general, and the Landau problem in particular

Even though its classical equations of motion are then left invariant, when an action is redefined by an additive total derivative or divergence term (in time, in the case of a mechanical system) such a transformation induces non-trivial consequences for the system’s canonical phase space formulation. This is even more true and then in more subtle ways for the canonically quantized dynamics, with, in particular, an induced transformation in the unitary configuration space representation of the Heisenberg algebra being used for the quantum system. When coupled to a background gauge field, such considerations become crucial for a proper understanding of the consequences for the system’s quantum dynamics of gauge transformations of that classical external background gauge field, while under such transformations, the system’s degrees of freedom, abstract quantum states and quantum dynamics are certainly strictly invariant. After a detailed analysis of these different points in a general context, these are then illustrated specifically in the case of the quantum Landau problem with its classical external background magnetic vector potential for which the most general possible parametrized gauge choice is implemented herein. The latter discussion aims as well to clarify some perplexing statements in the literature regarding the status of gauge choices to be made for the magnetic vector potential for that quantum system. The role of the global spacetime symmetries of the Landau problem and their gauge invariant Noether charges is then also emphasized.

Finite-group gauge theories on lattices as Hamiltonian systems with constraints

In this work, we present a brief but insightful overview of the gauge theories, which are defined on n-dimensional lattices by using finite gauge groups, in order to show how they can be interpreted as a Hamiltonian system with constraints, analogous to what happens with the classical (continuous) gauge (field) theories. As this interpretation is not usually explored in the literature that discusses/introduces the concept of lattice gauge theory, but some recent works have been exploring Hamiltonian models in order to support some kind of quantum computation, we use this interpretation to, for example, present a brief geometric view of one class of these models: the Kitaev Quantum Double Models.

Edge modes as reference frames and boundary actions from post-selection

We introduce a general framework realizing edge modes in (classical) gauge field theory as dynamical reference frames, an often suggested interpretation that we make entirely explicit. We focus on a bounded region M with a co-dimension one time-like boundary Γ, which we embed in a global spacetime. Taking as input a variational principle at the global level, we develop a systematic formalism inducing consistent variational principles (and in particular, boundary actions) for the subregion M. This relies on a post-selection procedure on Γ, which isolates the subsector of the global theory compatible with a general choice of gauge-invariant boundary conditions for the dynamics in M. Crucially, the latter relate the configuration fields on Γ to a dynamical frame field carrying information about the spacetime complement of M; as such, they may be equivalently interpreted as frame-dressed or relational observables. Generically, the external frame field keeps an imprint on the ensuing dynamics for subregion M, where it materializes itself as a local field on the time-like boundary Γ; in other words, an edge mode. We identify boundary symmetries as frame reorientations and show that they divide into three types, depending on the boundary conditions, that affect the physical status of the edge modes. Our construction relies on the covariant phase space formalism, and is in principle applicable to any gauge (field) theory. We illustrate it on three standard examples: Maxwell, Abelian Chern-Simons and non-Abelian Yang-Mills theories. In complement, we also analyze a mechanical toy-model to connect our work with recent efforts on (quantum) reference frames.

Condensates, massive gauge fields, and confinement in the SU(3) gauge theory

Abstract SU(3) gauge theory in the nonlinear gauge of the Curci–Ferrari type is studied. In the low-energy region, ghost condensation and subsequent gauge field condensation can happen. The latter condensation makes classical gauge fields massive. If the color electric potential with a string is chosen as the classical gauge field, it produces the static potential with the linear potential. We apply this static potential to the three-quark system, and show, differently from the Y-type potential, that infrared divergence remains in the Δ-type potential. The color electric flux is also studied, showing that a current which plays the role of the magnetic current appears

Lie algebroids and the geometry of off-shell BRST

It is well-known that principal bundles and associated bundles underlie the geometric structure of classical gauge field theories. In this paper, we explore the reformulation of gauge theories in terms of Lie algebroids and their associated bundles. This turns out to be a simple but elegant change, mathematically involving a quotient that removes spurious structure. The payoff is that the entire geometric structure involves only vector bundles over space-time, and we emphasize that familiar concepts such as BRST are built into the geometry, rather than appearing as adjunct structure. Thus the formulation of gauge theories in terms of Lie algebroids provides a fully off-shell account of the BRST complex. We expect that this formulation will have appealing impacts on the geometric understanding of quantization and anomalies, as well as entanglement in gauge theories. The formalism covers all gauge theories, and we discuss Yang-Mills theories with matter as well as gravitational theories explicitly.

Generalized quantum-classical correspondence for random walks on graphs

We introduce a minimal set of physically motivated postulates that the Hamiltonian H of a continuous-time quantum walk should satisfy in order to properly represent the quantum counterpart of the classical random walk on a given graph. We found that these conditions are satisfied by infinitely many quantum Hamiltonians, which provide novel degrees of freedom for quantum enhanced protocols, In particular, the on-site energies, i.e. the diagonal elements of H, and the phases of the off-diagonal elements are unconstrained on the quantum side. The diagonal elements represent a potential energy landscape for the quantum walk, and may be controlled by the interaction with a classical scalar field, whereas, for regular lattices in generic dimension, the off-diagonal phases of H may be tuned by the interaction with a classical gauge field residing on the edges, e.g., the electro-magnetic vector potential for a charged walker.

Instantons, symmetries and anomalies in five dimensions

All five-dimensional non-abelian gauge theories have a U(1)I global symmetry associated with instantonic particles. We describe an obstruction to coupling U(1)I to a classical background gauge field that occurs whenever the theory has a one-form center symmetry. This is a finite-order mixed ’t Hooft anomaly between the two symmetries. We also show that a similar obstruction takes place in gauge theories with fundamental matter by studying twisted bundles for the ordinary flavor symmetry. We explore some general dynamical properties of the candidate phases implied by the anomaly. Finally, we apply our results to supersymmetric gauge theories in five dimensions and analyze the symmetry enhancement patterns occurring at their conjectured RG fixed points.

Superfluid-to-Mott transition in a Bose-Hubbard ring: Persistent currents and defect formation

We revisit here the Kibble-Zurek mechanism for superfluid bosons slowly driven across the transition towards the Mott-insulating phase. By means of a combination of the Time-Dependent Variational Principle and a Tree-Tensor Network, we characterize the current flowing during annealing in a ring-shaped one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model with artificial classical gauge field on up to 32 lattice sites. We find that the superfluid current shows, after an initial decrease, persistent oscillations which survive even when the system is well inside the Mott insulating phase. We demonstrate that the amplitude of such oscillations is connected to the residual energy, characterizing the creation of defects while crossing the quantum critical point, while their frequency matches the spectral gap in the Mott insulating phase. Our predictions can be verified in future atomtronics experiments with neutral atoms in ring shaped traps. We believe that the proposed setup provides an interesting but simple platform to study the non-equilibrium quantum dynamics of persistent currents experimentally.

Domain Wall Solitons Arising in Classical Gauge Field Theories

Domain wall solitons are basic constructs realizing phase transitions in various field-theoretical models and are solutions to some nonlinear ordinary differential equations descending from the corresponding full sets of governing equations in higher dimensions. In this paper, we present a series of domain wall solitons arising in several classical gauge field theory models. In the context of the Abelian gauge field theory, we unveil the surprising result that the solutions may explicitly be constructed, which enriches our knowledge on integrability of the planar Liouville type equations in their one-dimensional limits. In the context of the non-Abelian gauge field theory, we obtain some existence theorems for domain wall solutions arising in the electroweak type theories by developing some methods of calculus of variations formulated as direct and constrained minimization problems over a weighted Sobolev space.

Emerging chromo-natural inflation

The shift-symmetric coupling of a pseudo-scalar particle driving inflation to gauge fields provides a unique way of probing cosmic inflation. For the case of an SU(2) gauge group, we suggest a possible mechanism for the development of a classical isotropic background gauge field from the standard quantum mechanical vacuum in the far past. Over the course of inflation, the theory dynamically evolves from an approximately abelian regime into an inherently non-abelian regime, with distinct predictions for the scalar and tensor power spectra. The latter regime closely resembles a setup known as chromo-natural inflation, although our main focus here is on a new part of the parameter space which has received little attention so far. For single-field slow-roll inflation models, large scales may exit the horizon in the abelian regime, ensuring agreement with the observations of the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background, whereas smaller scales experience the non-abelian effects. This results in a strong enhancement of the stochastic gravitational wave background at small scales, e.g. at frequencies accessible with ground-based interferometers. For the scalar power spectrum, a similar enhancement arises due to non-linear contributions.

Canonical transformation path to gauge theories of gravity-II: Space-time coupling of spin-0 and spin-1 particle fields

The generic form of space-time dynamics as a classical gauge field theory has recently been derived, based on only the action principle and on the principle of general relativity. It was thus shown that Einstein’s general relativity is the special case where (i) the Hilbert Lagrangian (essentially the Ricci scalar) is supposed to describe the dynamics of the “free” (uncoupled) gravitational field, and (ii) the energy–momentum tensor is that of scalar fields representing real or complex structureless (spin-[Formula: see text]) particles. It followed that all other source fields — such as vector fields representing massive and nonmassive spin-[Formula: see text] particles — need careful scrutiny of the appropriate source tensor. This is the subject of our actual paper: we discuss in detail the coupling of the gravitational field with (i) a massive complex scalar field, (ii) a massive real vector field, and (iii) a massless vector field. We show that different couplings emerge for massive and nonmassive vector fields. The massive vector field has the canonical energy–momentum tensor as the appropriate source term — which embraces also the energy density furnished by the internal spin. In this case, the vector fields are shown to generate a torsion of space-time. In contrast, the system of a massless and charged vector field is associated with the metric (Hilbert) energy–momentum tensor due to its additional [Formula: see text] symmetry. Moreover, such vector fields do not generate a torsion of space-time. The respective sources of gravitation apply for all models of the dynamics of the “free” (uncoupled) gravitational field — which do not follow from the gauge formalism but must be specified based on separate physical reasoning.

Physics architecture. Part two

Physics architecture. Part two. The talk is devoted to the jubilee of academician M.A. Markov, who was born in 1908. Now we have also the 100th anniversary of the gauge invariance principle proposed by Weyl in 1918. During the period from 1967 to 1988 M.A. Markov was Academician Secretary of Nuclear Physics Department of AN USSR. He organized the series of conferences dedicated to the topical problems of theoretical, nuclear and elementary particle physics. One of them was international seminar “Vector mesons and electromagnetic interactions” under A.M. Baldin direct leadership. It went off in JINR in September of 1969. This very that seminar gave birth to the conferences series named “Baldin autumn”. Thanks to the discussions at the A.M. Baldin seminar many critical situations in theoretical and experimental physics were subsequently settled. The first plenary session of the seminar included L.D. Faddeev talk about gauge field quantization, which cleared the way to develop the renormalized quantum gauge field theory. My talk was dedicated to the transformation of the classical gauge field theory into geometrical one. As a result the unified geometrical theory was obtained, which could include any interactions together with Einsteinian gravity. In this connection both formulations of Weyl’s local gauge invariance principle (of 1918 and 1929) as well as Einsteinian principle of general relativity were used. This approach was based on the fibre bundle geometry, which was developed by mathematicians at that time. This theory gives a realizable classification of interactions according to the local Lie’s symmetry groups associated with them. This approach leads to the VIth Hilbert’s problem solution. To obtain further development of the gauge field theory, it is necessary to decide the question of the gauge field mass origin. It is the key moment both in quantum and geometrical classical theories of the gauge fields. Therefore it is very important to analyze the experiments, where massive and massless particles are converted in each other (similar Baldin experiments in JINR in 1967).

Nonequilibrium axial charge production in expanding glasma flux tubes

Axial charge production at the early stage of heavy-ion collisions is investigated within the framework of real-time lattice simulations at leading order in QCD coupling. Starting from color glass condensate initial conditions, the time evolution of quantum quark fields under classical color gauge fields is computed on a lattice in longitudinally expanding geometry. We consider simple color charge distributions in Lorentz contracted nuclei that realize flux tube-like configurations of color fields carrying nonzero topological charge after a collision. By employing the Wilson fermion extended to the longitudinally expanding geometry, we demonstrate the realization of the axial anomaly on the real-time lattice.

Plasmon mass scale and quantum fluctuations of classical fields on a real time lattice

Classical real-time lattice simulations play an important role in understanding non-equilibrium phenomena in gauge theories and are used in particular to model the prethermal evolution of heavy-ion collisions. Above the Debye scale the classical Yang-Mills (CYM) theory can be matched smoothly to kinetic theory. First we study the limits of the quasiparticle picture of the CYM fields by determining the plasmon mass of the system using 3 different methods. Then we argue that one needs a numerical calculation of a system of classical gauge fields and small linearized fluctuations, which correspond to quantum fluctuations, in a way that keeps the separation between the two manifest. We demonstrate and test an implementation of an algorithm with the linearized fluctuation showing that the linearization indeed works and that the Gauss’s law is conserved.

Lattice implementation of Abelian gauge theories with Chern–Simons number and an axion field

Real time evolution of classical gauge fields is relevant for a number of applications in particle physics and cosmology, ranging from the early Universe to dynamics of quark–gluon plasma. We present an explicit non-compact lattice formulation of the interaction between a shift-symmetric field and some U(1) gauge sector, a(x)FμνF˜μν, reproducing the continuum limit to order O(dxμ2) and obeying the following properties: (i) the system is gauge invariant and (ii) shift symmetry is exact on the lattice. For this end we construct a definition of the topological number densityK=FμνF˜μν that admits a lattice total derivative representation K=Δμ+Kμ, reproducing to order O(dxμ2) the continuum expression K=∂μKμ∝E→⋅B→. If we consider a homogeneous field a(x)=a(t), the system can be mapped into an Abelian gauge theory with Hamiltonian containing a Chern–Simons term for the gauge fields. This allow us to study in an accompanying paper the real time dynamics of fermion number non-conservation (or chirality breaking) in Abelian gauge theories at finite temperature. When a(x)=a(x→,t) is inhomogeneous, the set of lattice equations of motion do not admit however a simple explicit local solution (while preserving an O(dxμ2) accuracy). We discuss an iterative scheme allowing to overcome this difficulty.

The Newton–Nelson Equation on Fiber Bundles with Connections

The paper is a survey with modifications on the research of the so-called Newton–Nelson equation (the equation of motion in Nelson’s stochastic mechanics) on the total space of a bundle in two cases: where the base of the bundle is a Riemannian manifold and the bundle is real and where the base of the bundle is a Lorentz manifold and the bundle is complex. In the latter case, we describe the relations with the equation of motion of the quantum particle in the classical gauge field (the above-mentioned connection). Moreover, a certain second-order ordinary differential equation on the bundle with connection that is interpreted as the equation of motion of the classical particle in the classical gauge field is described.

Born Level Bound States

Bound state poles in the $S$-matrix of perturbative QED are generated by the {\em divergence} of the expansion in $\alpha$. The perturbative corrections are necessarily singular when expanding around free, \order{\alpha^0} $in$ and $out$ states that have no overlap with finite-sized atomic wave functions. Nevertheless, measurables such as binding energies do have well-behaved expansions in powers of $\alpha$ (and $\log\alpha$). It is desirable to formulate the concept of "lowest order" for gauge theory bound states such that higher order corrections vanish in the $\alpha \to 0$ limit. This may allow to determine a lowest order term for QCD hadrons which incorporates essential features such as confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, and thus can serve as the starting point of a useful perturbative expansion. I discuss a "Born" (no loop, lowest order in $\hbar$) approximation. Born level states are bound by gauge fields which satisfy the classical field equations. Gauss' law determines a distinct field $A^0(\xv)$ for each instantaneous position of the charges. A Poincar\'e covariant boundary condition for the gluon field leads to a confining potential for $q\bar q$ and $qqq$ states. In frames where the bound state is in motion the classical gauge field is obtained by a Lorentz boost of the rest frame field.

Comments on global symmetries, anomalies, and duality in (2 + 1)d

We analyze in detail the global symmetries of various (2 + 1)d quantum field theories and couple them to classical background gauge fields. A proper identification of the global symmetries allows us to consider all non-trivial bundles of those background fields, thus finding more subtle observables. The global symmetries exhibit interesting ’t Hooft anomalies. These allow us to constrain the IR behavior of the theories and provide powerful constraints on conjectured dualities.