Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screening
Abstract We study the rich dynamics resulting from introducing static charged particles (Wilson lines) in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensional gauge theories. Depending on the charges of the external particles, there may be multiple defect fixed points with interesting renormalization group flows connecting them...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2023)183 |
| _version_ | 1827301370795917312 |
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| author | Ofer Aharony Gabriel Cuomo Zohar Komargodski Márk Mezei Avia Raviv-Moshe |
| author_facet | Ofer Aharony Gabriel Cuomo Zohar Komargodski Márk Mezei Avia Raviv-Moshe |
| author_sort | Ofer Aharony |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract We study the rich dynamics resulting from introducing static charged particles (Wilson lines) in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensional gauge theories. Depending on the charges of the external particles, there may be multiple defect fixed points with interesting renormalization group flows connecting them, or an exponentially large screening cloud can develop (defining a new emergent length scale), screening the bare charge entirely or partially. We investigate several examples where the dynamics can be solved in various weak coupling or double scaling limits. Sometimes even the elementary Wilson lines, corresponding to the lowest nontrivial charge, are screened. We consider Wilson lines in 3+1 dimensional gauge theories including massless scalar and fermionic QED4, and also in the N $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We also consider Wilson lines in 2+1 dimensional conformal gauge theories such as QED3 with bosons or fermions, Chern-Simons-Matter theories, and the effective theory of graphene. Our results in 2+1 dimensions have potential implications for graphene, second-order superconducting phase transitions, etc. Finally, we comment on magnetic line operators in 3+1 dimensions (’t Hooft lines) and argue that our results for the infrared dynamics of electric and magnetic lines are consistent with non-Abelian electric-magnetic duality. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T16:24:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-15328fc70ac64fe4a517af5e9af46a65 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1029-8479 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:22:00Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-15328fc70ac64fe4a517af5e9af46a652024-03-31T11:08:26ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792023-12-01202312111410.1007/JHEP12(2023)183Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screeningOfer Aharony0Gabriel Cuomo1Zohar Komargodski2Márk Mezei3Avia Raviv-Moshe4Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of ScienceCenter for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York UniversitySimons Center for Geometry and Physics, SUNYMathematical Institute, University of OxfordSimons Center for Geometry and Physics, SUNYAbstract We study the rich dynamics resulting from introducing static charged particles (Wilson lines) in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensional gauge theories. Depending on the charges of the external particles, there may be multiple defect fixed points with interesting renormalization group flows connecting them, or an exponentially large screening cloud can develop (defining a new emergent length scale), screening the bare charge entirely or partially. We investigate several examples where the dynamics can be solved in various weak coupling or double scaling limits. Sometimes even the elementary Wilson lines, corresponding to the lowest nontrivial charge, are screened. We consider Wilson lines in 3+1 dimensional gauge theories including massless scalar and fermionic QED4, and also in the N $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We also consider Wilson lines in 2+1 dimensional conformal gauge theories such as QED3 with bosons or fermions, Chern-Simons-Matter theories, and the effective theory of graphene. Our results in 2+1 dimensions have potential implications for graphene, second-order superconducting phase transitions, etc. Finally, we comment on magnetic line operators in 3+1 dimensions (’t Hooft lines) and argue that our results for the infrared dynamics of electric and magnetic lines are consistent with non-Abelian electric-magnetic duality.https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2023)183Wilson, ’t Hooft and Polyakov loopsRenormalization GroupScale and Conformal Symmetries |
| spellingShingle | Ofer Aharony Gabriel Cuomo Zohar Komargodski Márk Mezei Avia Raviv-Moshe Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screening Journal of High Energy Physics Wilson, ’t Hooft and Polyakov loops Renormalization Group Scale and Conformal Symmetries |
| title | Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screening |
| title_full | Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screening |
| title_fullStr | Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screening |
| title_full_unstemmed | Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screening |
| title_short | Phases of Wilson lines: conformality and screening |
| title_sort | phases of wilson lines conformality and screening |
| topic | Wilson, ’t Hooft and Polyakov loops Renormalization Group Scale and Conformal Symmetries |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2023)183 |
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