Generation of confinement and other nonperturbative effects by infrared gluonic degrees of freedom

Recent progress in understanding the emergence of confinement and other nonperturbative effects in the strong interaction vacuum is reviewed. Special emphasis is placed on the role of different types of collective infrared gluonic degrees of freedom in this respect. After a survey of complementary approaches, models of the QCD vacuum based on center vortices, Abelian magnetic monopoles and topological charge lumps such as instantons, merons and calorons are examined. Both the physical mechanisms governing these models as well as recent lattice studies of the respective degrees of freedom are reviewed.Comment: 15 pages (14 if you use the original espcrc2.sty instead of the hypertex-compatible local version), 4 figures containing 7 postscript files, talk presented at Lattice2004(plenary), Fermilab, June 21-26, 2004. Replaced version contains an additional reference and a corresponding commen

Finite-size scaling and boundary effects in two-dimensional valence-bond-solids

Various lattice geometries and boundaries are used to investigate valence-bond-solid (VBS) ordering in the ground state of an S=1/2 square-lattice quantum spin model---the J-Q model, in which 4- or 6-spin interactions Q are added to the Heisenberg exchange J. Ground state results for finite systems (with up to thousands of spins) are obtained using a projector QMC method. Great care has to be taken when extrapolating the order parameter to infinite size, in particular in cylinder geometry. Even though strong 2D VBS order exists and is established clearly with increasing system size on L*L lattices (or Lx* Ly lattices with a fixed Lx/Ly), only short-range VBS correlations are observed on long cylinders (when Lx -> infinity at fixed Ly). The correlation length increases with Ly, until long-range order sets in at a "critical" Ly. This width is large even when the 2D order is strong, e.g, for a system where the order parameter is 70% of the largest possible value, Ly=8 is required for ordering. Correlation functions for small L*L lattices can also be misleading. For a 20%-ordered system results for L up to 20 appear to extrapolate to a vanishing order parameter, while for larger L the behavior crosses over and extrapolates to a non-zero value (with exponentially small finite size corrections). The VBS order also exhibits interesting edge effects related to emergent U(1) symmetry, which, if not considered properly, can lead to wrong conclusions for the thermodynamic limit. The finite-size behavior for small L*L lattices and long cylinders is similar to that predicted for a Z2 spin liquid. The results raise concerns about recent works claiming Z2 spin liquid ground states in frustrated 2D systems, in particular, the Heisenberg model with nearest and next-nearest-neighbor couplings. VBS state in this system cannot be ruled out.Comment: 26 pages, 28 figures. v2: final, published versio

Can a stationary Bianchi black brane have momentum along the direction with no translational symmetry?

Bianchi black branes (black brane solutions with homogeneous but anisotropic horizons classified by the Bianchi type) provide a simple holographic setting with lattice structures taken into account. In the case of holographic superconductor, we have a persistent current with lattices. Accordingly, we expect that in the dual gravity side, a black brane should carry some momentum along a direction of lattice structure, where translational invariance is broken. Motivated by this expectation, we consider whether---and if possible, in what circumstances---a Bianchi black brane can have momentum along a direction of no-translational invariance. First, we show that this {\it cannot} be the case for a certain class of stationary Bianchi black brane solutions in the Einstein-Maxwell-dilation theory. Then we also show that this {\it can} be the case for some Bianchi VII$_0$ black branes by numerically constructing such a solution in the Einstein-Maxwell theory with an additional vector field having a source term. The horizon of this solution admits a translational invariance on the horizon and conveys momentum (and is "rotating" when compactified). However this translational invariance is broken just outside the horizon. This indicates the existence of a black brane solution which is regular but non-analytic at the horizon, thereby evading the black hole rigidity theorem.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. v2: section 4 clarified, one more numerical solution adde

Quantum Cellular Automata

Quantum cellular automata (QCA) are reviewed, including early and more recent proposals. QCA are a generalization of (classical) cellular automata (CA) and in particular of reversible CA. The latter are reviewed shortly. An overview is given over early attempts by various authors to define one-dimensional QCA. These turned out to have serious shortcomings which are discussed as well. Various proposals subsequently put forward by a number of authors for a general definition of one- and higher-dimensional QCA are reviewed and their properties such as universality and reversibility are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Springer Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Scienc

Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless-like percolation transitions in the two-dimensional XY model

We study a percolation problem on a substrate formed by two-dimensional XY spin configurations, using Monte Carlo methods. For a given spin configuration we construct percolation clusters by randomly choosing a direction $x$ in the spin vector space, and then placing a percolation bond between nearest-neighbor sites $i$ and $j$ with probability $p_{ij} = \max (0,1-e^{-2K s^x_i s^x_j})$, where $K > 0$ governs the percolation process. A line of percolation thresholds $K_{\rm c} (J)$ is found in the low-temperature range $J \geq J_{\rm c}$, where $J > 0$ is the XY coupling strength. Analysis of the correlation function $g_p (r)$, defined as the probability that two sites separated by a distance $r$ belong to the same percolation cluster, yields algebraic decay for $K \geq K_{\rm c}(J)$, and the associated critical exponent depends on $J$ and $K$. Along the threshold line $K_{\rm c}(J)$, the scaling dimension for $g_p$ is, within numerical uncertainties, equal to $1/8$. On this basis, we conjecture that the percolation transition along the $K_{\rm c} (J)$ line is of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figure

Supersonic crack propagation in a class of lattice models of Mode III brittle fracture

We study a lattice model for mode III crack propagation in brittle materials in a stripe geometry at constant applied stretching. Stiffening of the material at large deformation produces supersonic crack propagation. For large stretching the propagation is guided by well developed soliton waves. For low stretching, the crack-tip velocity has a universal dependence on stretching that can be obtained using a simple geometrical argument.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure