Continuum Limit Research Articles

Accurate and Fast Estimation of the Continuum Limit in Path Integral Simulations of Quantum Oscillators and Crystals.

Convergence of imaginary-time path integral results requires a substantial number of beads (n) when quantum effects are significant. Traditional Trotter scaling approaches estimate the continuum limit (n → ∞) through extrapolation; however, their validity is restricted to the asymptotic domain of large n. We introduce an efficient extrapolation approach for quantum oscillators and crystals with harmonic character. The fitting function is inspired by the analytic solution of the harmonic oscillator (HO), or the Einstein crystal for solids. While the formulation is designed for first derivative properties (energy and pressure), its extension to second derivative properties (e.g., heat capacity) is straightforward. We apply the method to a one-dimensional HO and anharmonic oscillator (AO), as well as a three-dimensional Lennard-Jones crystal. Configurations are sampled using path integral molecular dynamics simulations in the canonical ensemble, at a low temperature of T = 0.1 (simulation units). Compared to Trotter extrapolation approaches, the new method demonstrates a substantial accuracy in estimating the continuum limit, using only a few simulations of relatively small system sizes. This efficiency significantly reduces computational cost, providing a powerful tool to facilitate computations for more complex and challenging systems, such as molecules and crystals modeled using ab initio methods.

Dirac spectral density in Nf=2+1 QCD at T=230 MeV

We compute the renormalized Dirac spectral density in Nf=2+1 QCD at physical quark masses, temperature T=230 MeV, and system size Ls=3.4 fm. To that end, we perform a pointwise continuum limit of the staggered density in lattice QCD with staggered quarks. We find, for the first time, that a clear infrared structure (IR peak) emerges in the density of the Dirac operator describing dynamical quarks. We also provide numerical evidence that a component of this peak, which becomes dominant in the thermodynamic limit, is due to a nontrivial accumulation of near-zero modes. Features of this structure are consistent with those previously attributed to the recently proposed IR phase of thermal QCD. Our results (i) provide the only complete first-principles evidence that these IR features exist and are physical, (ii) improve the upper bound for IR phase transition temperature TIR so that the new window is 200<TIR<230 MeV, and (iii) are consistent with the nonrestoration of anomalous UA(1) symmetry (chiral limit) below T=230 MeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Entanglement in ( 1+1 )-dimensional free scalar field theory: Tiptoeing between continuum and discrete formulations

We review some classic works on ground state entanglement entropy in (1+1)-dimensional free scalar field theory. We point out identifications between the methods for the calculation of entanglement entropy and we show how the formalism developed for the discretized theory can be utilized in order to obtain results in the continuous theory. We specify the entanglement spectrum and we calculate the entanglement entropy for the theory defined on an interval of finite length L. Finally, we derive the modular Hamiltonian directly, without using the modular flow, via the continuum limit of the expressions obtained in the discretized theory. In a specific coordinate system, the modular Hamiltonian assumes the form of a free field Hamiltonian on the Rindler wedge. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Particle-Hole Asymmetric Ferromagnetism and Spin Textures in the Triangular Hubbard-Hofstadter Model

In a lattice model subject to a perpendicular magnetic field, when the lattice constant is comparable to the magnetic length, one enters the “Hofstadter regime,” where continuum Landau levels become fractal magnetic Bloch bands. Strong mixing between bands alters the nature of the resulting quantum phases compared to the continuum limit; lattice potential, magnetic field, and Coulomb interaction must be treated on equal footing. Using determinant quantum Monte Carlo and density matrix renormalization group techniques, we study this regime numerically in the context of the Hubbard-Hofstadter model on a triangular lattice. In the field-filling phase diagram, we find a broad wedge-shaped region of ferromagnetic ground states for filling factor ν≤1, bounded below by filling factor ν=1 and bounded above by half filling the lowest Hofstadter subband. We observe signatures of SU(2) quantum Hall ferromagnetism at filling factors ν=1 and ν=3. The phases near ν=1 are particle-hole asymmetric, and we observe a rapid decrease in ground-state spin polarization consistent with the formation of skyrmions only on the electron doped side. At large fields, above the ferromagnetic wedge, we observe a low-spin metallic region with spin correlations peaked at small momenta. We argue that the phenomenology of this region likely results from exchange interaction mixing fractal Hofstadter subbands. The phase diagram derived beyond the continuum limit points to a rich landscape to explore interaction effects in magnetic Bloch bands. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Luttinger liquid tensor network: Sine versus tangent dispersion of massless Dirac fermions

To apply the powerful many-body techniques of tensor networks to massless Dirac fermions, one wants to discretize the p·σ Hamiltonian and construct a matrix-product-operator (MPO) representation. We compare two alternative discretization schemes, one with a sine dispersion, the other with a tangent dispersion, applied to a one-dimensional Luttinger liquid with Hubbard interaction. Both types of lattice fermions allow for an exact MPO representation of low bond dimension, so they are efficiently computable, but only the tangent dispersion gives a power law decay of the propagator in agreement with the continuum limit: The sine dispersion is gapped by the interactions, evidenced by an exponentially decaying propagator. Our construction of a tensor network with an unpaired Dirac cone works around the fermion-doubling obstruction by exploiting the fact that the Hamiltonian of tangent fermions permits a generalized eigenproblem. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Spikes and spines in 4D Lorentzian simplicial quantum gravity

Simplicial approaches to quantum gravity such as quantum Regge calculus and spin foams include configurations where bulk edges can become arbitrarily large while the boundary edges are kept small. Spikes and spines are prime examples for such configurations. They pose a significant challenge for a desired continuum limit, for which the average lengths of edges ought to become very small. Here we investigate spike and spine configurations in four-dimensional Lorentzian quantum Regge calculus. We find that the expectation values of arbitrary powers of the bulk length are finite. To that end, we explore new types of asymptotic regimes for the Regge amplitudes, in which some of the edges are much larger than the remaining ones. The amplitudes simplify considerably in such asymptotic regimes and the geometric interpretation of the resulting expressions involves a dimensional reduction, which might have applications to holography.

Fock space and field theoretic description of nonequilibrium work relations

Abstract We consider classical, interacting particles coupled to a thermal reservoir and subject to a local, time-varying potential while undergoing hops on a lattice. We impose detailed balance on the hopping rates and map the dynamics to the Fock space Doi representation, from which we derive the Jarzynski and Crooks relations. Here the local potential serves to drive the system far from equilibrium and to provide the work. Next, we utilize the coherent state representation to map the system to a Doi–Peliti field theory and take the continuum limit. We demonstrate that time reversal in this field theory takes the form of a gauge-like transformation which leaves the action invariant up to a generated work term. The time-reversal symmetry leads to a fundamental identity, from which we are able to derive the Jarzynski and Crooks relations, as well as a far-from-equilibrium generalization of the fluctuation-dissipation relation.

Curvature continuous corner cutting

Subdivision schemes are used to generate smooth curves by iteratively refining an initial control polygon. The simplest such schemes are corner cutting schemes, which specify two distinct points on each edge of the current polygon and connect them to get the refined polygon, thus cutting off the corners of the current polygon. While de Boor (1987) shows that this process always converges to a Lipschitz continuous limit curve, no matter how the points on each edge are chosen, Gregory and Qu (1996) discover that the limit curve is continuously differentiable under certain constraints. We extend these results and show that the limit curve can even be curvature continuous for specific sequences of cut ratios.

Integrable Semi-Discretization for a Modified Camassa-Holm Equation with Cubic Nonlinearity

In the present paper, an integrable semi-discretization of the modified Camassa-Holm (mCH) equation with cubic nonlinearity is presented. The key points of the construction are based on the discrete Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation and appropriate definition of discrete reciprocal transformations. First, we demonstrate that these bilinear equations and their determinant solutions can be derived from the discrete KP equation through Miwa transformation and some reductions. Then, by scrutinizing the reduction process, we obtain a set of semi-discrete bilinear equations and their general soliton solutions in the Gram-type determinant form. Finally, we obtain an integrable semi-discrete analog of the mCH equation by introducing dependent variables and discrete reciprocal transformation. It is also shown that the semi-discrete mCH equation converges to the continuous one in the continuum limit.

Universal early-time growth in quantum circuit complexity

We show that quantum circuit complexity for the unitary time evolution operator of any time-independent Hamiltonian is bounded by linear growth at early times, independent of any choices of the fundamental gates or cost metric. Deviations from linear early-time growth arise from the commutation algebra of the gates and are manifestly negative for any circuit, decreasing the linear growth rate and leading to a bound on the growth rate of complexity of a circuit at early times. We illustrate this general result by applying it to qubit and harmonic oscillator systems, including the coupled and anharmonic oscillator. By discretizing free and interacting scalar field theories on a lattice, we are also able to extract the early-time behavior and dependence on the lattice spacing of complexity of these field theories in the continuum limit, demonstrating how this approach applies to systems that have been previously difficult to study using existing techniques for quantum circuit complexity.

First lattice QCD calculation of J/ψ semileptonic decay containing D and Ds particles

We perform the first lattice calculation on the semileptonic decay of J/ψ using the (2+1)-flavor Wilson-clover gauge ensembles generated by CLQCD collaboration. Three gauge ensembles with different lattice spacings, from 0.0519 to 0.1053 fm, and pion masses, mπ∼300 MeV, are utilized. After a naive continuum extrapolation using three lattice spacings, we obtain Br(J/ψ→Dseνe)=1.90(6)(5)Vcs×10−10 and Br(J/ψ→Deνe)=1.21(6)(9)Vcd×10−11, where the first errors are statistical, and the second come from the uncertainties of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element Vcs(d). The ratios of the branching fractions between lepton μ and e are also calculated as RJ/ψ(Ds)=0.97002(8) and RJ/ψ(D)=0.97423(15) after performing a continuum limit including only a2 term. The ratios provide necessary theoretical support for the future experimental test of lepton flavor universality. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Light fermion masses in partially deconstructed models

Considering a theory space consisting of a large number of five-dimensional Dirac fermion field theories including background abelian gauge fields, we can construct a theory similar to a continuous six-dimensional theory compactified with two-dimensional manifolds with and without magnetic flux or orbifolds as extra dimensions. This method, called dimensional deconstruction, can be used to construct a model with one-dimensional discrete space, which represents general graph structures. In this paper, we propose the models with two extra dimensions, which resemble two-dimensional tori, cylinders, and rectangular regions, as continuum limits. We also try to build a model that mimics one with the two-dimensional orbifold compactification.

Impact of gauge fixing precision on the continuum limit of nonlocal quark-bilinear lattice operators

We analyze the gauge fixing precision dependence of some nonlocal quark-bilinear lattice operators interesting in computing parton physics for several measurements, using five lattice spacings ranging from 0.032 to 0.121 fm. Our results show that gauge-dependent nonlocal measurements are significantly more sensitive to the precision of gauge fixing than anticipated. The impact of imprecise gauge fixing is significant for fine lattices and long distances. For instance, even with the typically defined precision of Landau gauge fixing of 10−8, the deviation caused by imprecise gauge fixing can reach 12%, when calculating the trace of Wilson lines at 1.2 fm with a lattice spacing of approximately 0.03 fm. Similar behavior has been observed in ξ gauge and Coulomb gauge as well. For both quasi-parton-distribution functions (quasi-PDFs) and quasi-transverse-momentum-dependent PDFs operators renormalized using the regularization independent momentum subtraction (RI/MOM) scheme, convergence for different lattice spacings at long distance is only observed when the precision of Landau gauge fixing is sufficiently high. To describe these findings quantitatively, we propose an empirical formula to estimate the required precision. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Lattice sums of I-Bessel functions, theta functions, linear codes and heat equations

We extend a certain type of identities on sums of I-Bessel functions on lattices, previously given by G. Chinta, J. Jorgenson, A. Karlsson and M. Neuhauser. Moreover we prove that, with continuum limit, the transformation formulas of theta functions such as the Dedekind eta function can be given by I-Bessel lattice sum identities with characters. We consider analogues of theta functions of lattices coming from linear codes and show that sums of I-Bessel functions defined by linear codes can be expressed by complete weight enumerators. We also prove that I-Bessel lattice sums appear as solutions of heat equations on general lattices. As a further application, we obtain an explicit solution of the heat equation on Zn\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\ extbf{Z}}^n$$\\end{document} whose initial condition is given by a linear code.

Pseudogap Effects in the Strongly Correlated Regime of the Two-Dimensional Fermi Gas.

The two-species Fermi gas with attractive short-range interactions in two spatial dimensions provides a paradigmatic system for the understanding of strongly correlated Fermi superfluids in two dimensions. It is known to exhibit a BEC to BCS crossover as a function of ln(k_{F}a), where a is the scattering length, and to undergo a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless superfluid transition below a critical temperature T_{c}. However, the extent of a pseudogap regime in the strongly correlated regime of ln(k_{F}a)∼1, in which pairing correlations persist above T_{c}, remains largely unexplored with controlled theoretical methods. Here, we use finite-temperature auxiliary-field quantum MonteCarlo methods on discrete lattices in the canonical ensemble formalism to calculate thermodynamical observables in the strongly correlated regime. We extrapolate to continuous time and the continuum limit to eliminate systematic errors and present results for particle numbers ranging from N=42 to N=162. We estimate T_{c} by a finite-size scaling analysis, and observe clear pseudogap signatures above T_{c} and below a temperature T^{*} in both the spin susceptibility and free-energy gap. We also present results for the contact, a fundamental thermodynamic property of quantum many-body systems with short-range interactions.

Machine learning a fixed point action for SU(3) gauge theory with a gauge equivariant convolutional neural network

Fixed point lattice actions are designed to have continuum classical properties unaffected by discretization effects and reduced lattice artifacts at the quantum level. They provide a possible way to extract continuum physics with coarser lattices, thereby allowing one to circumvent problems with critical slowing down and topological freezing toward the continuum limit. A crucial ingredient for practical applications is to find an accurate and compact parametrization of a fixed point action, since many of its properties are only implicitly defined. Here we use machine learning methods to revisit the question of how to parametrize fixed point actions. In particular, we obtain a fixed point action for four-dimensional SU(3) gauge theory using convolutional neural networks with exact gauge invariance. The large operator space allows us to find superior parametrizations compared to previous studies, a necessary first step for future Monte Carlo simulations and scaling studies. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Mean field limit for congestion dynamics

This paper addresses congested transport, which can be described, at macroscopic scales, by a continuity equation with a pressure variable generated from the hard-congestion constraint (maximum value of the density). The main goal of the paper is to show that, in one spatial dimension, this continuum PDE can be derived as the mean-field limit of a system of ordinary differential equations that describes the motion of a large number of particles constrained to stay at some finite distance from each others. To show that these two models describe the same dynamics at different scale, we will rely on both the Eulerian and Lagrangian points of view and use two different approximations for the density and pressure variables in the continuum limit.

Stress-driven nonlocal homogenization method for cellular structures

Strong size-dependent mechanical behaviors can be observed in cellular structures violating the principle of scale separation and cannot be captured by classical homogenization methods. This paper proposes a stress-driven nonlocal homogenization method to capture the size-dependent mechanical behavior due to the nonlocal force of cellular structures. A nonlocal discrete element model is proposed first to describe the nonlocal deformation mechanism of cellular structures. Then, a continuum stress-driven nonlocal homogenization method is calibrated by deriving the continuum limit from the nonlocal discrete element model. The continuum homogenization method releases the assumption of scale separation by introducing an intrinsic length, which can be calibrated by high throughput numerical computation. Also, for efficient prediction of size-dependent mechanical behaviors, an offline dataset of the intrinsic length is constructed for different unit cells. With the help of the offline dataset, the proposed homogenization method improves the accuracy of the classic homogenization method and reduces the computational cost of the high-fidelity finite element method. Finally, a cellular rod under tension is used as an application to illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed homogenization method. Results indicate that compared with the classic homogenization method, the relative error of the proposed homogenization method is less than 1% which has a good consistency with the high-fidelity method. Moreover, the computational efficiency of the proposed homogenization method is more than five times that of the high-fidelity finite element method.

Continuum limit for Laplace and elliptic operators on lattices

Continuum limit for Laplace and elliptic operators on lattices

Solvable toy model of negative energetic elasticity.

Recent experiments have established negative energetic elasticity, the negative contribution of energy to the elastic modulus, as a universal property of polymer gels. To reveal the microscopic origin of this phenomenon, Shirai and Sakumichi investigated a polymer model on a cubic lattice with the energy effect from the solvent in finite-size calculations [Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 148101 (2023)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.130.148101]. Motivated by this work, we provide a simple platform to study negative energetic elasticity by considering a one-dimensional random walk with the energy effect. This model can be mapped onto the classical Ising chain, leading to an exact form of the free energy in the thermodynamic or continuous limit. Our analytical results are qualitatively consistent with Shirai and Sakumichi's results. Our model serves as a fundamental benchmark for studying the elasticity of polymer chains.