Crystalline phases at finite winding densities in a quantum link ladder

Stornati, Paolo; Banerjee, Debasish; Krah, Philipp; Jansen, Karl

Preprint

PUBDB-2022-05024

Crystalline phases at finite winding densities in a quantum link ladder

Stornati, P. (Corresponding author) ; Krah, P. ; Jansen, K.DESY* ; Banerjee, D.

2022

[10.3204/PUBDB-2022-05024]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.3204/PUBDB-2022-05024

Report No.: arXiv:2208.01964

Abstract: Condensed matter physics of gauge theories coupled to fermions can exhibit a rich phase structure, but are nevertheless very difficult to study in Monte Carlo simulations when they are afflicted by a sign problem. As an alternate approach, we use tensor network methods to explore the finite density physics of Abelian gauge theories without dynamical matter. As a concrete example, we consider the U(1) gauge invariant quantum link ladder with spin-1/2 gauge fields in an external electric field which cause the winding electric fluxes to condense in the ground state. We demonstrate how the electric flux tubes arrange themselves in the bulk giving rise to crystalline patterns, whose period can be controlled by tuning the external field. We propose observables to detect the transitions in ground state properties not only in numerical experiments, but also in future cold-atom realizations. A systematic procedure for reaching the thermodynamic limit, as well as extending the studies from ladders to extended geometries is outlined.

Keyword(s): flux tube: electric ; invariance: gauge ; gauge field theory: abelian ; density: finite ; numerical calculations: Monte Carlo ; ground state ; external field ; thermodynamical ; network ; crystal ; geometry ; condensed matter ; U(1) ; electric field ; critical phenomena