arXiv subjects

Simon Catterall

Publications and source records attributed to Simon Catterall.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Report of the Snowmass 2021 Theory Frontier Topical Group on Quantum Information Science

We summarize current and future applications of quantum information science to theoretical high energy physics. Three main themes are identified and discussed; quantum simulation, quantum sensors and formal aspects of the connection between quantum information and gravity. Within these themes, there are important research questions and opportunities to address them in the years and decades ahead. Efforts in developing a diverse quantum workforce are also discussed. This work summarizes the subtopical area Quantum Information for High Energy Physics TF10 which forms part of the Theory Frontier report for the Snowmass 2021 planning process.

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arXiv2022

Report of the Snowmass 2021 Topical Group on Lattice Gauge Theory

Lattice gauge theory continues to be a powerful theoretical and computational approach to simulating strongly interacting quantum field theories, whose applications permeate almost all disciplines of modern-day research in High-Energy Physics. Whether it is to enable precision quark- and lepton-flavor physics, to uncover signals of new physics in nucleons and nuclei, to elucidate hadron structure and spectrum, to serve as a numerical laboratory to reach beyond the Standard Model, or to invent and improve state-of-the-art computational paradigms, the lattice-gauge-theory program is in a prime position to impact the course of developments and enhance discovery potential of a vibrant experimental program in High-Energy Physics over the coming decade. This projection is based on abundant successful results that have emerged using lattice gauge theory over the years: on continued improvement in theoretical frameworks and algorithmic suits; on the forthcoming transition into the exascale era of high-performance computing; and on a skillful, dedicated, and organized community of lattice gauge theorists in the U.S. and worldwide. The prospects of this effort in pushing the frontiers of research in High-Energy Physics have recently been studied within the U.S. decadal Particle Physics Planning Exercise (Snowmass 2021), and the conclusions are summarized in this Topical Report.

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arXiv2022

Anomalies and symmetric mass generation for Kaehler-Dirac fermions

We show that massless Kaehler-Dirac (KD) fermions exhibit a mixed gravitational anomaly involving an exact $U(1)$ symmetry which is unique to KD fields. Under this $U(1)$ symmetry the partition function transforms by a phase depending only on the Euler character of the background space. Compactifying flat space to a sphere we learn that the anomaly vanishes in odd dimensions but breaks the symmetry down to $Z_4$ in even dimensions. This $Z_4$ is sufficient to prohibit bilinear terms from arising in the fermionic effective action. Four fermion terms are allowed but require multiples of two flavors of KD field. In four dimensional flat space each KD field can be decomposed into four Dirac spinors and hence these anomaly constraints ensure that eight Dirac fermions or, for real representations, sixteen Majorana fermions are needed for a consistent interacting theory. These constraints on fermion number agree with known results for topological insulators and recent work on discrete anomalies rooted in the Dai-Freed theorem. Our work suggests that KD fermions may offer an independent path to understanding these constraints. Finally we point out that this anomaly survives intact under discretization and hence is relevant in understanding recent numerical results on lattice models possessing massive symmetric phases.

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arXiv2022

Euclidean Dynamical Triangulations Revisited

We conduct numerical simulations of a model of four dimensional quantum gravity in which the path integral over continuum Euclidean metrics is approximated by a sum over combinatorial triangulations. At fixed volume the model contains a discrete Einstein-Hilbert term with coupling $κ$ and local measure term with coupling $β$ that weights triangulations according to the number of simplices sharing each vertex. We map out the phase diagram in this two dimensional parameter space and compute a variety of observables that yield information on the nature of any continuum limit. Our results are consistent with a line of first order phase transitions with a latent heat that decreases as $κ\to\infty$. We find a Hausdorff dimension along the critical line that approaches $D_H=4$ for large $κ$ and a spectral dimension that is consistent with $D_s=\frac{3}{2}$ at short distances. These results are broadly in agreement with earlier works on Euclidean dynamical triangulation models which utilize degenerate triangulations and/or different measure terms and indicate that such models exhibit a degree of universality.

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arXiv2022

Induced topological gravity and anomaly inflow from Kaehler-Dirac fermions in odd dimensions

We show that the effective action that results from integrating out massive Kaehler-Dirac fermions propagating on a curved three dimensional space is a topological gravity theory of Chern-Simons type. In the presence of a domain wall, massless, two dimensional Kaehler-Dirac fermions appear that are localized to the wall. Potential gravitational anomalies arising for these domain wall fermions are cancelled via anomaly inflow from the bulk gravitational theory. We also study the invariance of the theory under large gauge transformations. The analysis and conclusions generalize straightforwardly to higher dimensions.

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arXiv2022

Tensor networks for High Energy Physics: contribution to Snowmass 2021

Tensor network methods are becoming increasingly important for high-energy physics, condensed matter physics and quantum information science (QIS). We discuss the impact of tensor network methods on lattice field theory, quantum gravity and QIS in the context of High Energy Physics (HEP). These tools will target calculations for strongly interacting systems that are made difficult by sign problems when conventional Monte Carlo and other importance sampling methods are used. Further development of methods and software will be needed to make a significant impact in HEP. We discuss the roadmap to perform quantum chromodynamics (QCD) related calculations in the coming years. The research is labor intensive and requires state of the art computational science and computer science input for its development and validation. We briefly discuss the overlap with other science domains and industry.

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arXiv2022

Supersymmetric Lattice Theories: Contribution to Snowmass 2022

In this white paper we summarise the construction and applications of lattice theories possessing exact supersymmetry focusing, in particular, on N=4 Yang-Mills theory. Lattice formulations of this theory allow for numerical simulation of the theory at strong coupling and hence give a window on non-perturbative physics away from the planar limit. This has important applications to our understanding of holographic approaches to quantum gravity and conformal field theories.

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arXiv2021

Scalar fields on fluctuating hyperbolic geometries

We present results on the behavior of the boundary-boundary correlation function of scalar fields propagating on discrete two-dimensional random triangulations representing manifolds with the topology of a disk. We use a gravitational action that includes a curvature squared operator, which favors a regular tessellation of hyperbolic space for large values of its coupling. We probe the resultant geometry by analyzing the propagator of a massive scalar field and show that the conformal behavior seen in the uniform hyperbolic space survives as the coupling approaches zero. The analysis of the boundary correlator suggests that holographic predictions survive, at least, weak quantum gravity corrections. We then show how such an $R^2$ operator might be induced as a result of integrating out massive lattice fermions and show preliminary result for boundary correlation functions that include the effects of this fermionic backreaction on the geometry.

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arXiv2021

Holography for Ising spins on the hyperbolic plane

Motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence, we use Monte Carlo simulation to investigate the Ising model formulated on tessellations of the two-dimensional hyperbolic disk. We focus in particular on the behavior of boundary-boundary correlators, which exhibit power-law scaling both below and above the bulk critical temperature indicating scale invariance of the boundary theory at any temperature. This conclusion is strengthened by a finite-size scaling analysis of the boundary susceptibility which yields a scaling exponent consistent with the scaling dimension extracted from the boundary correlation function. This observation provides evidence that the connection between continuum boundary conformal symmetry and isometries of the bulk hyperbolic space survives for simple interacting field theories even when the bulk is approximated by a discrete tessellation.

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arXiv2021

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 a $SU(2)\times SU(2)$ gauge symmetry. This fermion representation ensures that single site bilinear mass terms vanish identically. A symmetric four fermion operator is however allowed and we show numerical results that show that a condensate of this operator develops in the vacuum.

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arXiv2021

Chiral Lattice Fermions From Staggered Fields

We describe a proposal for constructing a lattice theory that we argue may be capable of yielding free Weyl fermions in the continuum limit. The model employs reduced staggered fermions and uses site parity dependent Yukawa interactions of Fidkowski-Kitaev type to gap a subset of the lattice fermions without breaking symmetries. The possibility for such symmetric mass generation is tied to the cancellation of certain discrete anomalies arising in the continuum limit. The latter place strong constraints on the number of lattice fermions -- constraints that are satisfied by this model. We present numerical results for the model in two dimensions which support this sc

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arXiv2020

Lattice N=4 super Yang-Mills at Strong Coupling

In this paper we present results from numerical simulations of N=4 super Yang-Mills for two color gauge theory over a wide range of 't Hooft coupling $0<λ\le 30$ using a supersymmetric lattice action \cite{Catterall:2009it}. Numerical study of this lattice theory has been stymied until recently by both sign problems and the occurrence of lattice artifact phases at strong coupling. We have recently developed a new action that appears capable of solving both problems. The resulting action possesses just $SU(2)$ rather than $U(2)$ gauge symmetry. By explicit computations of the fermion Pfaffian we present evidence that the theory possesses no sign problem and exists in a single phase out to arbitrarily strong coupling. Furthermore, preliminary work shows that the logarithm of the supersymmetric Wilson loop varies as the square root of the 't Hooft coupling $λ$ for large $λ$ in agreement with holographic predictions.

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arXiv2020

Three-dimensional super-Yang--Mills theory on the lattice and dual black branes

In the large-$N$ and strong-coupling limit, maximally supersymmetric SU($N$) Yang--Mills theory in $(2 + 1)$ dimensions is conjectured to be dual to the decoupling limit of a stack of $N$ D$2$-branes, which may be described by IIA supergravity.We study this conjecture in the Euclidean setting using nonperturbative lattice gauge theory calculations.Our supersymmetric lattice construction naturally puts the theory on a skewed Euclidean 3-torus. Taking one cycle to have anti-periodic fermion boundary conditions, the large-torus limit is described by certain Euclidean black holes. We compute the bosonic action---the variation of the partition function---and compare our numerical results to the supergravity prediction as the size of the torus is changed, keeping its shape fixed. Our lattice calculations primarily utilize $N = 8$ with extrapolations to the continuum limit, and our results are consistent with the expected gravity behavior in the appropriate large-torus limit.

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arXiv2020

Tensor network formulation of two dimensional gravity

We show how to formulate a lattice gauge theory whose naive continuum limit corresponds to two-dimensional (Euclidean) quantum gravity including a positive cosmological constant. More precisely the resultant continuum theory corresponds to gravity in a first-order formalism in which the local frame and spin connection are treated as independent fields. Recasting this lattice theory as a tensor network allows us to study the theory at strong coupling without encountering a sign problem. In two dimensions this tensor network is exactly soluble and we show that the system has a series of critical points that occur for pure imaginary coupling and are associated with first order phase transitions. We then augment the action with a Yang-Mills term which allows us to control the lattice spacing and show how to apply the TRG to compute the free energy and look for critical behavior. Finally we perform an analytic continuation in the gravity coupling in this extended model and show that its critical behavior in a certain scaling limit depends only on the topology of the underlying lattice. We also show how the lattice gauge theory can be naturally generalized to generate the Polyakov or Liouville action for two dimensional quantum gravity.

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arXiv2020

Holography on tessellations of hyperbolic space

We compute boundary correlation functions for scalar fields on tessellations of two- and three-dimensional hyperbolic geometries. We present evidence that the continuum relation between the scalar bulk mass and the scaling dimension associated with boundary-to-boundary correlation functions survives the truncation of approximating the continuum hyperbolic space with a lattice.

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arXiv2020

Exotic Phases of a Higgs-Yukawa Model with Reduced Staggered Fermions

We investigate the phase structure of a four dimensional SO(4) invariant lattice Higgs-Yukawa model comprising four reduced staggered fermions interacting with a real scalar field. The fermions belong to the fundamental representation of the symmetry group while the three scalar field components transform in the self-dual representation of SO(4). We explore the phase diagram and find evidence of a continuous transition between a phase where the fermions are massless to one where the fermions acquire mass. This transition is not associated with symmetry breaking and there is no obvious local order parameter.

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arXiv2019

Tensor network formulation of the massless Schwinger model

We construct a tensor network representation of the partition function for the massless Schwinger model on a two dimensional lattice using staggered fermions. The tensor network representation allows us to include a topological term. Using a particular implementation of the tensor renormalization group (HOTRG) we calculate the phase diagram of the theory. For a range of values of the coupling to the topological term $θ$ and the gauge coupling $β$ we compare with results from hybrid Monte Carlo when possible and find good agreement.

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arXiv2019

Lattice Gauge Theory for Physics Beyond the Standard Model

This document is one of a series of whitepapers from the USQCD collaboration. Here, we discuss opportunities for lattice field theory research to make an impact on models of new physics beyond the Standard Model, including composite Higgs, composite dark matter, and supersymmetric theories.

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