Preserving gauge invariance in neural networks

In these proceedings we present lattice gauge equivariant convolutional neural networks (L-CNNs) which are able to process data from lattice gauge theory simulations while exactly preserving gauge symmetry. We review aspects of the architecture and show how L-CNNs can represent a large class of gauge invariant and equivariant functions on the lattice. We compare the performance of L-CNNs and non-equivariant networks using a non-linear regression problem and demonstrate how gauge invariance is broken for non-equivariant models.

Cold atoms meet lattice gauge theory

The central idea of this review is to consider quantum field theory models relevant for particle physics and replace the fermionic matter in these models by a bosonic one. This is mostly motivated by the fact that bosons are more ‘accessible’ and easier to manipulate for experimentalists, but this ‘substitution’ also leads to new physics and novel phenomena. It allows us to gain new information about among other things confinement and the dynamics of the deconfinement transition. We will thus consider bosons in dynamical lattices corresponding to the bosonic Schwinger or Z 2 Bose–Hubbard models. Another central idea of this review concerns atomic simulators of paradigmatic models of particle physics theory such as the Creutz–Hubbard ladder, or Gross–Neveu–Wilson and Wilson–Hubbard models. This article is not a general review of the rapidly growing field—it reviews activities related to quantum simulations for lattice field theories performed by the Quantum Optics Theory group at ICFO and their collaborators from 19 institutions all over the world. Finally, we will briefly describe our efforts to design experimentally friendly simulators of these and other models relevant for particle physics. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Quantum technologies in particle physics’.

Generalized eigenproblem without fermion doubling for Dirac fermions on a lattice

The spatial discretization of the single-cone Dirac Hamiltonian on the surface of a topological insulator or superconductor needs a special ``staggered’’ grid, to avoid the appearance of a spurious second cone in the Brillouin zone. We adapt the Stacey discretization from lattice gauge theory to produce a generalized eigenvalue problem, of the form \bm{\mathcal H}\bm{\psi}=\bm{E}\bm{\mathcal P}\bm{\psi}ℋ𝛙=𝐄𝒫𝛙, with Hermitian tight-binding operators \bm{\mathcal H}ℋ, \bm{\mathcal P}𝒫, a locally conserved particle current, and preserved chiral and symplectic symmetries. This permits the study of the spectral statistics of Dirac fermions in each of the four symmetry classes A, AII, AIII, and D.

Searching for continuous phase transitions in 5D SU(2) lattice gauge theory

We study the phase diagram of 5-dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory on the lattice. We consider two extensions of the fundamental plaquette Wilson action in the search for the continuous phase transition suggested by the 4 + ϵ expansion. The extensions correspond to new terms in the action: i) a unit size plaquette in the adjoint representation or ii) a two-unit sided square plaquette in the fundamental representation. We use Monte Carlo to sample the first and second derivative of the entropy near the confinement phase transition, with lattices up to 125. While we exclude the presence of a second order phase transition in the parameter space we sampled for model i), our data is not conclusive in some regions of the parameter space of model ii).

Symmetric Mass Generation in Lattice Gauge Theory

We construct a four-dimensional lattice gauge theory in which fermions acquire mass without breaking symmetries as a result of gauge interactions. Our model consists of reduced staggered fermions transforming in the bifundamental representation of an SU(2)×SU(2) gauge symmetry. This fermion representation ensures that single-site bilinear mass terms vanish identically. A symmetric four-fermion operator is however allowed, and we give numerical results that show that a condensate of this operator develops in the vacuum.

Static magnetic susceptibility in finite-density $$SU\left( 2\right) $$ lattice gauge theory

We study static magnetic susceptibility $$\chi (T, \mu )$$ χ ( T , μ ) in SU(2) lattice gauge theory with $$N_f = 2$$ N f = 2 light flavours of dynamical fermions at finite chemical potential $$\mu $$ μ . Using linear response theory we find that SU(2) gauge theory exhibits paramagnetic behavior in both the high-temperature deconfined regime and the low-temperature confining regime. Paramagnetic response becomes stronger at higher temperatures and larger values of the chemical potential. For our range of temperatures $$0.727 \le T/T_c \le 2.67$$ 0.727 ≤ T / T c ≤ 2.67 , the first coefficient of the expansion of $$\chi \left( T, \mu \right) $$ χ T , μ in even powers of $$\mu /T$$ μ / T around $$\mu =0$$ μ = 0 is close to that of free quarks and lies in the range $$(2, \ldots , 5) \cdot 10^{-3}$$ ( 2 , … , 5 ) · 10 - 3 . The strongest paramagnetic response is found in the diquark condensation phase at $$\mu >m\pi /2$$ μ > m π / 2 .

Center group dominance in quark confinement

We show that the color N dependent area law falloffs of the double-winding Wilson loop averages for the SU(N) lattice gauge theory obtained in the preceding works are reproduced from the corresponding lattice Abelian gauge theory with the center gauge group ZN . This result indicates the center group dominance in quark confinement.