Meson dynamics from locally exciting a particle-conserving $Z_2$ lattice gauge theory

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sharma, Vaibhav, Hazzard, Kaden R. A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Sharma, Vaibhav
Hazzard, Kaden R. A.
author_facet Sharma, Vaibhav
Hazzard, Kaden R. A.
contents Quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories is an important avenue to gain insights into both particle physics phenomena and constrained quantum many-body dynamics. There is a growing interest in probing analogs of high energy collision phenomena in lattice gauge theories that can be implemented on current quantum simulators. Motivated by this, we characterize the confined mesons that originate from a local high energy excitation in a particle-conserving 1D $Z_2$ lattice gauge theory. We focus on a simple, experimentally accessible setting that does not require preparation of colliding wavepackets and isolates the effects of gauge field confinement strength and initial state energy on the nature of propagating excitations. We find that the dynamics is characterized by the propagation of a superposition of differently sized mesons. The linear confinement leads to meson size oscillations in time. The average meson size and oscillation frequency are controlled by the strength of the gauge field confinement. At a constant confinement field, the average meson length is controlled by the initial excitation's energy. Higher energies produce longer mesons and their effective mass depends strongly on their size: longer mesons propagate more slowly out of the central excitation. Mesons of different sizes get spatially filtered with time due to different speeds. We show that this phenomenology is a consequence of linear confinement and remains valid in both the strong and weak confinement limit. We present simple explanations of these phenomena supported by exact numerics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_02791
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Meson dynamics from locally exciting a particle-conserving $Z_2$ lattice gauge theory
Sharma, Vaibhav
Hazzard, Kaden R. A.
Quantum Physics
Quantum Gases
High Energy Physics - Lattice
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories is an important avenue to gain insights into both particle physics phenomena and constrained quantum many-body dynamics. There is a growing interest in probing analogs of high energy collision phenomena in lattice gauge theories that can be implemented on current quantum simulators. Motivated by this, we characterize the confined mesons that originate from a local high energy excitation in a particle-conserving 1D $Z_2$ lattice gauge theory. We focus on a simple, experimentally accessible setting that does not require preparation of colliding wavepackets and isolates the effects of gauge field confinement strength and initial state energy on the nature of propagating excitations. We find that the dynamics is characterized by the propagation of a superposition of differently sized mesons. The linear confinement leads to meson size oscillations in time. The average meson size and oscillation frequency are controlled by the strength of the gauge field confinement. At a constant confinement field, the average meson length is controlled by the initial excitation's energy. Higher energies produce longer mesons and their effective mass depends strongly on their size: longer mesons propagate more slowly out of the central excitation. Mesons of different sizes get spatially filtered with time due to different speeds. We show that this phenomenology is a consequence of linear confinement and remains valid in both the strong and weak confinement limit. We present simple explanations of these phenomena supported by exact numerics.
title Meson dynamics from locally exciting a particle-conserving $Z_2$ lattice gauge theory
topic Quantum Physics
Quantum Gases
High Energy Physics - Lattice
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.02791