Schwinger Model with a Dynamical Axion
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Rouxinol, Gabriel Magorsch, Tom Osborne, Jesse J. Brambilla, Nora Halimeh, Jad C. |
| author_facet | Rouxinol, Gabriel Magorsch, Tom Osborne, Jesse J. Brambilla, Nora Halimeh, Jad C. |
| contents | One of the major open puzzles in the Standard Model of particle physics is the strong CP problem: although Quantum Chromodynamics allows a CP-violating topological $θ$-term, experiments constrain its value to be extremely small. The Peccei--Quinn mechanism resolves this problem by promoting the $θ$-angle to a dynamical field-introducing the axion -- whose dynamics relax the effective angle $θ_\text{eff}$ to a CP-conserving minimum. Here, we investigate the resulting axion physics in a Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory (LGT) by coupling a quantized axion field to the massive Schwinger model with a topological $θ$-term. Using infinite matrix product state techniques, we compute the ground-state properties of the resulting theory and demonstrate that the axion dynamically relaxes $θ_\text{eff}$ to the minimum of the vacuum energy. Consequently, the ground-state energy becomes independent of $θ$, demonstrating the axion-mediated solution to the strong CP problem within a fully dynamical LGT. We further analyze CP restoration and extract the axion mass from the topological susceptibility and excitation spectrum. Our results provide a nonperturbative demonstration of axion dynamics in a quantum LGT amenable to investigation on modern quantum hardware. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_12194 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Schwinger Model with a Dynamical Axion Rouxinol, Gabriel Magorsch, Tom Osborne, Jesse J. Brambilla, Nora Halimeh, Jad C. High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Quantum Gases High Energy Physics - Lattice High Energy Physics - Theory Nuclear Theory One of the major open puzzles in the Standard Model of particle physics is the strong CP problem: although Quantum Chromodynamics allows a CP-violating topological $θ$-term, experiments constrain its value to be extremely small. The Peccei--Quinn mechanism resolves this problem by promoting the $θ$-angle to a dynamical field-introducing the axion -- whose dynamics relax the effective angle $θ_\text{eff}$ to a CP-conserving minimum. Here, we investigate the resulting axion physics in a Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory (LGT) by coupling a quantized axion field to the massive Schwinger model with a topological $θ$-term. Using infinite matrix product state techniques, we compute the ground-state properties of the resulting theory and demonstrate that the axion dynamically relaxes $θ_\text{eff}$ to the minimum of the vacuum energy. Consequently, the ground-state energy becomes independent of $θ$, demonstrating the axion-mediated solution to the strong CP problem within a fully dynamical LGT. We further analyze CP restoration and extract the axion mass from the topological susceptibility and excitation spectrum. Our results provide a nonperturbative demonstration of axion dynamics in a quantum LGT amenable to investigation on modern quantum hardware. |
| title | Schwinger Model with a Dynamical Axion |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Quantum Gases High Energy Physics - Lattice High Energy Physics - Theory Nuclear Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12194 |