Hooft Loop Research Articles

Action of the Axial U(1) Non-Invertible Symmetry on the ’t Hooft Line Operator: A Lattice Gauge Theory Study

Abstract We study how the symmetry operator of the axial $U(1)$ non-invertible symmetry acts on the ’t Hooft line operator in the $U(1)$ gauge theory by employing the modified Villain-type lattice formulation. We model the axial anomaly by a compact scalar boson, the “QED axion”. For the gauge invariance, the simple ’t Hooft line operator, which is defined by a line integral of the dual $U(1)$ gauge potential, must be “dressed” by the scalar and $U(1)$ gauge fields. A careful consideration on the basis of the anomalous Ward–Takahashi identity containing the ’t Hooft operator with the dressing factor and a precise definition of the symmetry operator on the lattice shows that the symmetry operator leaves no effect when it sweeps out a ’t Hooft loop operator. This result appears inequivalent with the phenomenon concluded in the continuum theory. In an appendix, we demonstrate that the half-space gauging of the magnetic $\mathbb {Z}_N$ 1-form symmetry, when formulated in an appropriate lattice framework, leads to the same conclusion as above. A similar result is obtained for the axion string operator.

Confinement and D5-branes

In this work we present new solutions of type IIB supergravity based on wrapped D5 branes. We propose that two of these backgrounds are holographically dual to Quantum Field Theories that confine. The high energy regime of the field theories is that of a Little String Theory. We study various observables (Wilson and ’t Hooft loops, Entanglement entropy, density of degrees of freedom and the spectrum of spin-two glueballs, among others). We also present two new black membrane backgrounds and analyse some thermodynamic aspects of these solutions.

Study of gapped phases of 4d gauge theories using temporal gauging of the ℤN 1-form symmetry

To study gapped phases of 4d gauge theories, we introduce the temporal gauging of ℤN 1-form symmetry in 4d quantum field theories (QFTs), thereby defining effective 3d QFTs with overset{sim }{mathbb{Z}} N × ℤN 1-form symmetry. In this way, spatial fundamental Wilson and ’t Hooft loops are simultaneously genuine line operators. Assuming a mass gap and Lorentz invariant vacuum of the 4d QFT, the overset{sim }{mathbb{Z}} N × ℤN symmetry must be spontaneously broken to an order-N subgroup H, and we can classify the 4d gapped phases by specifying H. This establishes the 1-to-1 correspondence between the two classification schemes for gapped phases of 4d gauge theories: one is the conventional Wilson-’t Hooft classification, and the other is the modern classification using the spontaneous breaking of 4d 1-form symmetry enriched with symmetry-protected topological states.

Holographic operator product expansion of loop operators in the super Yang-Mills theory* *Supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11975164, 11935009) and Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (20JCYBJC00910, 20JCQNJC02030)

In this study, we compute the correlation functions of Wilson(-'t Hooft) loops with chiral primary operators in the supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with gauge symmetry, which has a holographic dual description of the Type IIB superstring theory on the background. Specifically, we compute the coefficients of the chiral primary operators in the operator product expansion of Wilson loops in the fundamental representation, Wilson-'t Hooft loops in the symmetric representation, Wilson loops in the anti-fundamental representation, and Wilson loops in the spinor representation. We also compare these results to those of the super Yang-Mills theory.

Fractional vortices, Z2 gauge theory, and the confinement-deconfinement transition

In this Letter we discuss the classical three-dimensional XY model whose nearest-neighbor interaction is a mixture of $cos({\ensuremath{\theta}}_{i}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\theta}}_{j})$ (ferromagnetic) and $cos2({\ensuremath{\theta}}_{i}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\theta}}_{j})$ (nematic). This model is dual to a theory with integer and half-integer vortices. While both types of vortices interact with a noncompact $U(1)$ gauge field, the half-integer vortices interact with an extra interaction mediated by a ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ gauge field. We shall discuss the confinement-deconfinement transition of the half-integer vortices, the Wilson and the `t Hooft loops, and their mutual statistics in path integral language. In addition, we shall present a quantum version of the classical model which exhibits these physics.

Fracton topological order at finite temperature

As new kinds of stabilizer code models, fracton models have been promising in realizing quantum memory or quantum hard drives. However, it has been shown that the fracton topological order of 3D fracton models occurs only at zero temperature. In this Letter, we show that higher dimensional fracton models can support a fracton topological order below a nonzero critical temperature $T_c$. Focusing on a typical 4D X-cube model, we show that there is a finite critical temperature $T_c$ by analyzing its free energy from duality. We also obtained the expectation value of the 't Hooft loops in the 4D X-cube model, which directly shows a confinement-deconfinement phase transition at finite temperature. This finite-temperature phase transition can be understood as spontaneously breaking the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ one-form subsystem symmetry. Moreover, we propose a new no-go theorem for finite-temperature quantum fracton topological order.

Wilson loops in the Hamiltonian formalism

In a gauge theory, the gauge invariant Hilbert space is unchanged by the coupling to arbitrary local operators. In the presence of Wilson loops, though, the physical Hilbert space must be enlarged by adding test electric charges along the loop. I discuss how at nonzero temperature Polyakov loops are naturally related to the propagator of a test charge. 't Hooft loops represent the propagation of a test magnetic charge, and so do not alter the physical Hilbert space.

Entropic order parameters in weakly coupled gauge theories

The entropic order parameters measure in a universal geometric way the statistics of non-local operators responsible for generalized symmetries. In this article, we compute entropic order parameters in weakly coupled gauge theories. To perform this computation, the natural route of evaluating expectation values of physical (smeared) non-local operators is prevented by known difficulties in constructing suitable smeared Wilson loops. We circumvent this problem by studying the smeared non-local class operators in the enlarged non-gauge invariant Hilbert space. This provides a generic approach for smeared operators in gauge theories and explicit formulas at weak coupling. In this approach, the Wilson and ’t Hooft loops are labeled by the full weight and co-weight lattices respectively. We study generic Lie groups and discuss couplings with matter fields. Smeared magnetic operators, as opposed to the usual infinitely thin ones, have expectation values that approach one at weak coupling. The corresponding entropic order parameter saturates to its maximum topological value, except for an exponentially small correction, which we compute. On the other hand, smeared ’t Hooft loops and their entropic disorder parameter are exponentially small. We verify that both behaviors match the certainty relation for the relative entropies. In particular, we find upper and lower bounds (that differ by a factor of 2) for the exact coefficient of the linear perimeter law for thin loops at weak coupling. This coefficient is unphysical/non-universal for line operators. We end with some comments regarding the RG flows of entropic parameters through perturbative beta functions.

Entropic order parameters for the phases of QFT

We propose entropic order parameters that capture the physics of generalized symmetries and phases in QFT’s. We do it through an analysis of simple properties (additivity and Haag duality) of the net of operator algebras attached to space-time regions. We observe that different types of symmetries are associated with the breaking of these properties in regions of different non-trivial topologies. When such topologies are connected, we show that the non locally generated operators generate an Abelian symmetry group, and their commutation relations are fixed. The existence of order parameters with area law, like the Wilson loop for the confinement phase, or the ’t Hooft loop for the dual Higgs phase, is shown to imply the existence of more than one possible choice of algebras for the same underlying theory. A natural entropic order parameter arises by this non-uniqueness. We display aspects of the phases of theories with generalized symmetries in terms of these entropic order parameters. In particular, the connection between constant and area laws for dual order and disorder parameters is transparent in this approach, new constraints arising from conformal symmetry are revealed, and the algebraic origin of the Dirac quantization condition (and generalizations thereof) is described. A novel tool in this approach is the entropic certainty relation satisfied by dual relative entropies associated with complementary regions, which quantitatively relates the statistics of order and disorder parameters.

Quantum complementarity through entropic certainty principles

We approach the physical implications of the non-commutative nature of Complementary Observable Algebras (COA) from an information theoretic perspective. In particular, we derive a general \textit{entropic certainty principle} stating that the sum of two relative entropies, naturally related to the COA, is equal to the so-called algebraic index of the associated inclusion. Uncertainty relations then arise by monotonicity of the relative entropies that participate in the underlying entropic certainty. Examples and applications are described in quantum field theories with global symmetries, where the COA are formed by the charge-anticharge local operators (intertwiners) and the unitary representations of the symmetry group (twists), and in theories with local symmetries, where the COA are formed by Wilson and 't Hooft loops. In general, the entropic certainty principle naturally captures the physics of order/disorder parameters, a feature that makes it a generic handle for the information theoretic characterization of quantum phases.

Resumming perturbative series in the presence of monopole bubbling effects

Monopole bubbling effect is screening of magnetic charges of singular Dirac monopoles by regular 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles. We study properties of weak coupling perturbative series in the presence of monopole bubbling effects as well as instantons. For this purpose, we analyze supersymmetric 't Hooft loop in four dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric gauge theories with Lagrangians and non-positive beta functions. We show that the perturbative series of the 't Hooft loop is Borel summable along positive real axis for fixed instanton numbers and screened magnetic charges. It turns out that the exact result of the 't Hooft loop is the same as the sum of the Borel resummations over instanton numbers and effective magnetic charges. We also obtain the same result for supersymmetric dyonic loops.

On monopole bubbling contributions to \u2019t Hooft loops

Monopole bubbling contributions to supersymmetric ’t Hooft loops in 4d mathcal{N} = 2 theories are computed by SQM indices. As recently argued, those indices are hard to compute due to the presence of Coulomb vacua that are not captured by standard localization techniques. We propose an algorithmic method to compute the full bubbling contributions that circumvent this issue, by considering SQM with more matter fields and isolating the bubbling terms as residues in flavor fugacities. The enlarged SQMs are read from brane configurations realizing the bubbling sector of a given ’t Hooft loop. We apply our technique to loop operators in mathcal{N} = 2 conformal SQCD theories. In addition we embed this discussion in the larger setup of a 5d-4d system interacting along a line, associated to the brane systems previously discussed. The bubbling terms arise from residues of specific instanton sectors of 5d line operators in this context.

Refined 3d-3d correspondence

We explore aspects of the correspondence between Seifert 3-manifolds and 3d mathcal{N} = 2 supersymmetric theories with a distinguished abelian flavour symmetry. We give a prescription for computing the squashed three-sphere partition functions of such 3d mathcal{N} = 2 theories constructed from boundary conditions and interfaces in a 4d mathcal{N} = 2∗ theory, mirroring the construction of Seifert manifold invariants via Dehn surgery. This is extended to include links in the Seifert manifold by the insertion of supersymmetric Wilson-’t Hooft loops in the 4d mathcal{N} = 2∗ theory. In the presence of a mass parameter cfor the distinguished flavour symmetry, we recover aspects of refined Chern-Simons theory with complex gauge group, and in particular construct an analytic continuation of the S-matrix of refined Chern-Simons theory.

Dual Superconductivity in Abelian Higgs Model of QCD

The study of generalized field associated with Abelian dyons has been undertaken and it has been demonstrated that topologically, a non-Abelian gauge theory is equivalent to a set of Abelian gauge theories supplemented by dyons which undergo condensation leading to confinement and consequently to superconducting model of QCD vacuum, where the Higgs field plays the role of a regulator only. Constructing the effective action for dyonic field in Abelian projection of QCD, it has been demonstrated that any charge (electrical or magnetic) of dyon screens its own direct potential to which it minimally couples and anti-screens the dual potential leading to dual superconductivity in accordance with generalized Meissner effect. In this Abelian projection of QCD an Abelian Higgs model (AHM) has been successfully constructed and it has been shown to incorporate dual superconductivity and confinement as the consequence of dyonic condensation. It has been demonstrated that in AHM t’ Hooft loop creates the string (AHM-string) around which the monopole current under London limit leads to vanishing coherence length in the chromo-magnetic superconductor. It has also been shown that in London limit the squared density of monopole current around AHM-string has a maximum at the distance of the order of penetration length.

Confining dyon-antidyon Coulomb liquid model. I.

We revisit the dyon-antidyon liquid model for the Yang-Mills confining vacuum discussed by Diakonov and Petrov, by retaining the effects of the classical interactions mediated by the streamline between the dyons and antidyons. In the SU(2) case the model describes a 4-component strongly interacting Coulomb liquid in the center symmetric phase. We show that in the linearized screening approximation, the streamline interactions yield Debye-Huckel-type corrections to the bulk parameters, such as the pressure and densities, but do not alter significantly the large-distance behavior of the correlation functions in leading order. The static scalar and charged structure factors are consistent with a plasma of a dyon-antidyon liquid with a Coulomb parameter ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{D\overline{D}}\ensuremath{\approx}1$ in the dyon-antidyon channel. Heavy quarks are still linearly confined and the large spatial Wilson loops still exhibit area laws in leading order. The ${\mathrm{t}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ Hooft loop is shown to be one modulo Coulomb corrections.

On some 1/4 BPS Wilson-’t Hooft loops

In this paper, we investigate the 1/4 BPS Wilson-’t Hooft loops in $$ \mathcal{N}=4 $$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We use the bulk D3-brane solutions with both electric and magnetic charges on its world-volume to describe some of 1/4 BPS Wilson-’t Hooft loops. The D3-brane supersymmetric solutions are derived form requiring κ-symmetry. We find the two consistent constraints for Killing spinors and calculate the conserved charges of straight 1/4 BPS Wilson-’t Hooft loops and expectation values of circular 1/4 BPS Wilson-’t Hooft loops separately.

Notes on theta dependence in holographic Yang-Mills

Effects of the theta parameter are studied in Witten's model of holographic 4d Yang-Mills, where theta is the coefficient of the CP-breaking topological term. First, the gravity background, including the full backreaction of the RR form dual to the theta parameter, is revisited. Then, a number of observables are computed holographically: the ground-state energy density, the string tension, the 't Hooft loop, the light scalar glueball mass, the baryon mass scale, the critical temperature for deconfinement - and thus the whole (T, theta) phase diagram - and the entanglement entropy. A simple rule is provided to derive the theta corrections to (at least) all the CP-neutral observables of the model. Some of the observables we consider can and have been in fact studied in pure 4d Yang-Mills on the lattice. In that framework the results, obtained in the small theta regime, are given up to very few powers of theta^2. The corresponding holographic results agree qualitatively with available lattice data and signal an overall mass scale reduction by theta. Moreover, being exact in theta, they provide a benchmark for higher order corrections in Yang-Mills.

Topologically massive Yang–Mills theory and link invariants

Topologically massive Yang–Mills theory is studied in the framework of geometric quantization. Since this theory has a mass gap proportional to the topological mass m, Yang–Mills contribution decays exponentially at very large distances compared to 1/m, leaving a pure Chern–Simons theory with level number k. In this paper, the near Chern–Simons limit is studied where the distance is large enough to give an almost topological theory, with a small contribution from the Yang–Mills term. It is shown that this almost topological theory consists of two copies of Chern–Simons with level number k/2, very similar to the Chern–Simons splitting of topologically massive AdS gravity. Also, gauge invariance of these half-Chern–Simons theories is discussed. As m approaches to infinity, the split parts add up to give the original Chern–Simons term with level k. Reduction of the phase space is discussed in this limit. Finally, a relation between the observables of topologically massive Yang–Mills theory and Chern–Simons theory is shown. One of the two split Chern–Simons pieces is shown to be associated with Wilson loops while the other with 't Hooft loops. This allows one to use skein relations to calculate topologically massive Yang–Mills theory observables in the near Chern–Simons limit.

Matrix models for deconfinement and their perturbative corrections

Matrix models for the deconfining phase transition in $SU(N)$ gauge theories have been developed in recent years. With a few parameters, these models are able to reproduce the lattice results of the thermodynamic quantities in the semi-quark gluon plasma(QGP) region. They are also used to compute the behavior of the 't Hooft loop and study the exceptional group $G(2)$. In this paper, we review the basic ideas of the construction of these models and propose a new form of the non-ideal corrections in the matrix model. In the semi-QGP region, our new model is in good agreement with the lattice simulations as the previous ones, while in higher temperature region, it reproduces the upward trend of the rescaled trace anomaly as found in lattice which, however, can not be obtained from the previous models. In addition, we discuss the perturbative corrections to the thermal effective potential which could be used to systematically improve the matrix models at high temperatures. In particular, we provide, for the first time, an analytical proof of the relation between the one- and two-loop effective potential: two-loop correction is proportional to the one-loop result, independent of the eigenvalues of the Polyakov loop. This is a very general result, we prove it for all classic groups, including $SU(N)$, $SO(2N+1)$, $SO(2N)$ and $Sp(2N)$.

The superconformal index and an elliptic algebra of surface defects

In this paper we continue the study of the superconformal index of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories of class $\mathcal{S}$ in the presence of surface defects. Our main result is the construction of an algebra of difference operators, whose elements are labeled by irreducible representations of $A_{N-1}$. For the fully antisymmetric tensor representations these difference operators are the Hamiltonians of the elliptic Ruijsenaars-Schneider system. The structure constants of the algebra are elliptic generalizations of the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. In the Macdonald limit, we identify the difference operators with local operators in the two-dimensional TQFT interpretation of the superconformal index. We also study the dimensional reduction to difference operators acting on the three-sphere partition function, where they characterize supersymmetric defects supported on a circle, and show that they are transformed to supersymmetric Wilson loops under mirror symmetry. Finally, we compare to the difference operators that create 't Hooft loops in the four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2^*$ theory on a four-sphere by embedding the three-dimensional theory as an S-duality domain wall.