Hamiltonian Lattice Gauge Theory Research Articles

Gauged Gaussian projected entangled pair states: A high dimensional tensor network formulation for lattice gauge theories

Gauge theories form the basis of our understanding of modern physics—ranging from the description of quarks and gluons to effective models in condensed matter physics. In the nonperturbative regime, gauge theories are conventionally treated discretely as lattice gauge theories. The resulting systems are evaluated with path-integral based Monte Carlo methods. These methods, however, can suffer from the sign problem and do not allow for a direct evaluation of real-time dynamics. In this work, we present a unified and comprehensive framework for gauged Gaussian projected entangled pair states (PEPS), a variational ansatz based on tensor networks. We review the construction of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theories, explain their similarities to PEPS, and detail the construction of the ansatz state. The estimation of ground states is based on a variational Monte Carlo procedure with the PEPS as an ansatz state. This sign-problem-free ansatz can be efficiently evaluated in any dimension with arbitrary gauge groups, and can include dynamical fermionic matter, suggesting new options for the simulation of nonperturbative regimes of gauge theories, including quantum chromodynamics. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Loop-string-hadron formulation of an SU(3) gauge theory with dynamical quarks

Towards the goal of quantum computing for lattice quantum chromodynamics, we present a loop-string-hadron (LSH) framework in 1+1 dimensions for describing the dynamics of SU(3) gauge fields coupled to staggered fermions. This novel framework was previously developed for an SU(2) lattice gauge theory in $d\leq3$ spatial dimensions and its advantages for classical and quantum algorithms have thus far been demonstrated in $d=1$. The LSH approach uses gauge invariant degrees of freedoms such as loop segments, string ends, and on-site hadrons, it is free of all nonabelian gauge redundancy, and it is described by a Hamiltonian containing only local interactions. In this work, the SU(3) LSH framework is systematically derived from the reformulation of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory in terms of irreducible Schwinger bosons, including the addition of staggered quarks. Furthermore, the superselection rules governing the LSH dynamics are identified directly from the form of the Hamiltonian. The SU(3) LSH Hamiltonian with open boundary conditions has been numerically confirmed to agree with the completely gauge-fixed Hamiltonian, which contains long-range interactions and does not generalize to either periodic boundary conditions or to $d>1$.

Exact duality and local dynamics in SU(N) lattice gauge theory

We construct exact duality transformations in pure SU(N) Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory in ($2+1$) dimension. This duality is obtained by making a series of iterative canonical transformations on the SU(N) electric vector fields and their conjugate magnetic vector potentials on the four links around every plaquette. The resulting dual description is in terms of the magnetic scalar fields or plaquette flux loops and their conjugate electric scalar potentials. Under SU(N) gauge transformations they both transform like adjoint matter fields. The dual Hamiltonian describes the nonlocal self-interactions of these plaquette flux loops in terms of the electric scalar potentials and with inverted coupling. We show that these nonlocal loop interactions can be made local and converted into minimal couplings by introducing SU(N) auxiliary gauge fields along with new plaquette constraints. The matter fields can be included through minimal coupling. The techniques can be easily generalized to ($3+1$) dimensions.

ZN lattice gauge theory in a ladder geometry

Under the perspective of realizing analog quantum simulations of lattice gauge theories, ladder geometries offer an intriguing playground, relevant for ultracold atom experiments. Here, we investigate Hamiltonian lattice gauge theories defined in two-leg ladders. We consider a model that includes both gauge boson and Higgs matter degrees of freedom with local $\mathbb{Z}_N$ gauge symmetries. We study its phase diagram based on both an effective low-energy field theory and density matrix renormalization group simulations. For $N\ge 5$, an extended gapless Coulomb phase emerges, which is separated by a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition from the surrounding gapped phase. Besides the traditional confined and Higgs regimes, we also observe a novel quadrupolar region, originated by the ladder geometry.

Loop, string, and hadron dynamics in SU(2) Hamiltonian lattice gauge theories

The question of how to efficiently formulate Hamiltonian gauge theories is experiencing renewed interest due to advances in building quantum simulation platforms. We introduce a reformulation of an SU(2) Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory---a loop-string-hadron (LSH) formulation---that describes dynamics directly in terms of its loop, string, and hadron degrees of freedom, while alleviating several disadvantages of quantumly simulating the Kogut-Susskind formulation. This LSH formulation transcends the local loop formulation of $d+1$-dimensional lattice gauge theories by incorporating staggered quarks, furnishing the algebra of gauge-singlet operators, and being used to reconstruct dynamics between states that have Gauss's law built in to them. LSH operators are then factored into products of "normalized" ladder operators and diagonal matrices, priming them for classical or quantum information processing. Self-contained expressions of the Hamiltonian are given up to $d=3$. The LSH formalism makes little use of structures specific to SU(2) and its conceptual clarity makes it an attractive approach to apply to other non-Abelian groups like SU(3).

Emergence of Gauss' law in a Z2 lattice gauge theory in 1 + 1 dimensions

We explore a Z2 Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory in one spatial dimension with a coupling h, without imposing any Gauss' law constraint. We show that in our model h=0 is a free deconfined quantum critical point containing massless fermions where all Gauss' law sectors are equivalent. The coupling h is a relevant perturbation of this critical point and fermions become massive due to confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. To study the emergent Gauss' law sectors at low temperatures in this massive phase we use a quantum Monte Carlo method that samples configurations of the partition function written in a basis in which local conserved charges are diagonal. We find that two Gauss' law sectors, related by particle-hole symmetry, emerge naturally. When the system is doped with an extra particle, many more Gauss's law sectors related by translation invariance emerge. Using results in the range 0.01<h≤0.15 we find that three different mass scales of the model behave like hp where p≈0.579.

Gauss law, minimal coupling and fermionic PEPS for lattice gauge theories

In these lecture notes, we review some recent works on Hamiltonian lattice gauge theories, that involve, in particular, tensor network methods. The results reviewed here are tailored together in a slightly different way from the one used in the contexts where they were first introduced. We look at the Gauss law from two different points of view: for the gauge field, it is a differential equation, while from the matter point of view, on the other hand, it is a simple, explicit algebraic equation. We will review and discuss what these two points of view allow and do not allow us to do, in terms of unitarily gauging a pure-matter theory and eliminating the matter from a gauge theory, and relate that to the construction of PEPS (Projected Entangled Pair States) for lattice gauge theories.

Higher lattices, discrete two-dimensional holonomy and topological phases in (3 + 1)D with higher gauge symmetry

Higher gauge theory is a higher order version of gauge theory that makes possible the definition of 2-dimensional holonomy along surfaces embedded in a manifold where a gauge 2-connection is present. In this paper, we study Hamiltonian models for discrete higher gauge theory on a lattice decomposition of a manifold. We show that a construction for higher lattice gauge theory is well-defined, including in particular a Hamiltonian for topological phases of matter in [Formula: see text] dimensions. Our construction builds upon the Kitaev quantum double model, replacing the finite gauge connection with a finite gauge 2-group 2-connection. Our Hamiltonian higher lattice gauge theory model is defined on spatial manifolds of arbitrary dimension presented by slightly combinatorialized CW-decompositions (2-lattice decompositions), whose 1-cells and 2-cells carry discrete 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional holonomy data. We prove that the ground-state degeneracy of Hamiltonian higher lattice gauge theory is a topological invariant of manifolds, coinciding with the number of homotopy classes of maps from the manifold to the classifying space of the underlying gauge 2-group. The operators of our Hamiltonian model are closely related to discrete 2-dimensional holonomy operators for discretized 2-connections on manifolds with a 2-lattice decomposition. We therefore address the definition of discrete 2-dimensional holonomy for surfaces embedded in 2-lattices. Several results concerning the well-definedness of discrete 2-dimensional holonomy, and its construction in a combinatorial and algebraic topological setting are presented.

SU(N)glueball masses in 2+1 dimensions

We calculate the masses of the lowest lying eigenstates of improved SU(2), SU(3), SU(4) and SU(5) Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory in 2+1 dimensions using an analytic variational approach. The ground state is approximated by a one plaquette trial state and mass gaps are calculated in the symmetric and antisymmetric sectors by minimizing over a suitable basis of rectangular states. Analytic techniques are developed to handle the group integrals arising in the calculation.

Analytic variational study of the mass spectrum in (2+1)-dimensional SU(3) Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory

We calculate the masses of the lowest lying eigenstates of improved SU(2) and SU(3) lattice gauge theory in 2+1 dimensions using an analytic variational approach. The ground state is approximated by a one plaquette trial state and mass gaps are calculated in the symmetric and antisymmetric sectors by minimising over a suitable basis of rectangular states.

A new fermion Hamiltonian for lattice gauge theory

We formulate Hamiltonian vector-like lattice gauge theory using the overlap formula for the spatial fermionic part, H f . We define a chiral charge, Q 5 which commutes with H f , but not with the electric field term. There is an interesting relation between the chiral charge and the fermion energy with consequences for chiral anomalies.

Improved Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory

We derive an improved lattice Hamiltonian for pure gauge theory, coupling arbitrarily distant links in the kinetic term. The level of improvement achieved is examined in variational calculations of the SU(2) specific heat in 2+1 dimensions.

Direct improvement of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory

We demonstrate that a direct approach to improving Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory is possible. Our approach is to correct errors in the Kogut-Susskind Hamiltonian by incorporating additional gauge invariant terms. The coefficients of these terms are chosen so that the order $a^2$ classical errors vanish. We conclude with a brief discussion of tadpole improvement in Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory.

Variational Calculation in SU(3) Lattice GaugeTheory

Using the Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory, we perform somevariational calculations to obtain the ground-state energy of SU(3)gauge field and scalar (0+ + ) glueball mass. The agreement of our datawith the strong and weak expansion results in the corresponding limits indicates that this method can provide us withreliable information in the most interesting medium region. The trialwavefunction used in our variational method is also proven to be a goodfirst approximation of the ground-state of the SU(3) gauge field.Upgrading this function according to correlations of adjacent plaquettesmay mean better results.

Toward a Many-Body Treatment of Hamiltonian Lattice SU(N) Gauge Theory

We develop a consistent approach to Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory, using the maximal-tree gauge. The various constraints are discussed and implemented. An independent and complete set of variables for the colourless sector is determined. A general scheme to construct the eigenstates of the electric energy operator using a symbolic method is described. It is shown how the one-plaquette problem can be mapped onto an N-fermion problem. Explicit solutions for U(1), SU(2), SU(3), SU(4), and SU(5) lattice gauge theory are shown.

COUPLED CLUSTER METHODS FOR LATTICE GAUGE THEORIES

We give a pedagogical account of coupled cluster methods, of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory and of the application of coupled cluster methods to the study of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory.

LOCVapproach to U(1) Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory

The simplicity and easiness of the lowest-order constrained variational(LOCV) method among the other many-body techniques, persuaded us touse this method to study a well known and relatively cumbersomeproblem, compact QED in 2+1 dimensions. Variousquantities such as the ground state energy, the mean value of theplaquettevariable and the photonmass gap are computed. Finally, we compareour results with those which have been carried out using othermany-body theories.

Green function simulation of Hamiltonian lattice models with stochastic reconfiguration

We apply a recently proposed Green Function Monte Carlo to the study of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theories. This class of algorithms computes quantum vacuum expectation values by averaging over a set of suitable weighted random walkers. By means of a procedure called Stochastic Reconfiguration the long standing problem of keeping fixed the walker population without a priori knowledge on the ground state is completely solved. In the $U(1)_2$ model, which we choose as our theoretical laboratory, we evaluate the mean plaquette and the vacuum energy per plaquette. We find good agreement with previous works using model dependent guiding functions for the random walkers.

The basis of the physical Hilbert space of lattice gauge theories

Non-linear Fourier analysis on compact groups is used to construct an orthonormal basis of the physical (gauge invariant) Hilbert space of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theories. In particular, the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian operator involved are explicitly computed. Finally, some applications and possible developments of the formalism are discussed.

A many-body treatment of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory

The Hamiltonian SU(N) lattice gauge theory is studied in terms of angular variables. We show that the one-plaquette problem can be mapped onto a fermion problem for arbitrary N. The low-lying energy spectrum is investigated numerically.