Investigating a (3+1)D topological θ -term in the Hamiltonian formulation of lattice gauge theories for quantum and classical simulations

Autor: Jan Haase, Karl Jansen, Angus Kan, Stefan Kühn, Christine A. Muschik, Lena Funcke, Jinglei Zhang, Luca Dellantonio
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Physical Review D. 104
ISSN: 2470-0029
2470-0010
DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.104.034504
Popis: Quantum technologies offer the prospect to efficiently simulate sign-problem afflicted regimes in lattice field theory, such as the presence of topological terms, chemical potentials, and out-of-equilibrium dynamics. In this work, we derive the $(3+1)\mathrm{D}$ topological $\ensuremath{\theta}$-term for Abelian and non-Abelian lattice gauge theories in the Hamiltonian formulation, paving the way toward Hamiltonian-based simulations of such terms on quantum and classical computers. We further study numerically the zero-temperature phase structure of a $(3+1)\mathrm{D}$ U(1) lattice gauge theory with the $\ensuremath{\theta}$-term via exact diagonalization for a single periodic cube. In the strong coupling regime, our results suggest the occurrence of a phase transition at constant values of $\ensuremath{\theta}$, as indicated by an avoided level crossing and abrupt changes in the plaquette expectation value, the electric energy density, and the topological charge density. These results could in principle be cross-checked by the recently developed $(3+1)\mathrm{D}$ tensor network methods and quantum simulations, once sufficient resources become available.
Databáze: OpenAIRE