Phase Unwrapping and One-Dimensional Sign Problems

Sign problems in path integrals arise when different field configurations contribute with different signs or phases. Phase unwrapping describes a family of signal processing techniques in which phase differences between elements of a time series are integrated to construct non-compact unwrapped phase differences. By combining phase unwrapping with a cumulant expansion, path integrals with sign problems arising from phase fluctuations can be systematically approximated as linear combinations of path integrals without sign problems. This work explores phase unwrapping in zero-plus-one-dimensional complex scalar field theory. Results with improved signal-to-noise ratios for the spectrum of scalar field theory can be obtained from unwrapped phases, but the size of cumulant expansion truncation errors is found to be undesirably sensitive to the parameters of the phase unwrapping algorithm employed. It is argued that this numerical sensitivity arises from discretization artifacts that become large when phases fluctuate close to singularities of a complex logarithm in the definition of the unwrapped phase.Comment: 42 pages, 16 figures. Journal versio

Unwrapping phase fluctuations in one dimension

Correlation functions in one-dimensional complex scalar field theory provide a toy model for phase fluctuations, sign problems, and signal-to-noise problems in lattice field theory. Phase unwrapping techniques from signal processing are applied to lattice field theory in order to map compact random phases to noncompact random variables that can be numerically sampled without sign or signal-to-noise problems. A cumulant expansion can be used to reconstruct average correlation functions from moments of unwrapped phases, but points where the field magnitude fluctuates close to zero lead to ambiguities in the definition of the unwrapped phase and significant noise at higher orders in the cumulant expansion. Phase unwrapping algorithms that average fluctuations over physical length scales improve, but do not completely resolve, these issues in one dimension. Similar issues are seen in other applications of phase unwrapping, where they are found to be more tractable in higher dimensions.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1806.0183

Exponential reduction of finite volume effects with twisted boundary conditions

Flavor-twisted boundary conditions can be used for exponential reduction of finite volume artifacts in flavor-averaged observables in lattice QCD calculations with $SU(N_f)$ light quark flavor symmetry. Finite volume artifact reduction arises from destructive interference effects in a manner closely related to the phase averaging which leads to large $N_c$ volume independence. With a particular choice of flavor-twisted boundary conditions, finite volume artifacts for flavor-singlet observables in a hypercubic spacetime volume are reduced to the size of finite volume artifacts in a spacetime volume with periodic boundary conditions that is four times larger.Comment: 18 pages, no figure

Baryons, multi-hadron systems, and composite dark matter in non-relativistic QCD

We provide a formulation of potential non-relativistic quantum chromodynamics (pNRQCD) suitable for calculating binding energies and matrix elements of generic hadron and multi-hadron states made of heavy quarks in $SU(N_c)$ gauge theory using quantum Monte Carlo techniques. We compute masses of quarkonium and triply-heavy baryons in order to study the perturbative convergence of pNRQCD and validate our numerical methods. Further, we study $SU(N_c)$ models of composite dark matter and provide simple power series fits to our pNRQCD results that can be used to relate dark meson and baryon masses to the fundamental parameters of these models. For many systems comprised entirely of heavy quarks, the quantum Monte Carlo methods employed here are less computationally demanding than lattice field theory methods, although they introduce additional perturbative approximations. The formalism presented here may therefore be particularly useful for predicting composite dark matter properties for a wide range of $N_c$ and heavy fermion masses.Comment: 39 pages, 24 figure

Tetraquarks made of sufficiently heavy quarks are bound in QCD

Tetraquarks, bound states composed of two quarks and two antiquarks, have been the subject of intense study but have yet to be understood from first principles. Previous studies of fully-heavy tetraquarks in nonrelativistic effective field theories of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) suggest different conclusions for their existence. We apply variational and Green's function Monte Carlo methods to compute tetraquarks' ground- and excited-state energies in potential nonrelativistic QCD. We robustly demonstrate that fully-heavy tetraquarks are bound in QCD for sufficiently heavy quark masses. We also predict the masses of tetraquark bound states comprised of $b$ and $c$ quarks, which are experimentally accessible, and suggest possible resolutions for previous theoretical discrepancies.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figur

The Role of Lattice QCD in Searches for Violations of Fundamental Symmetries and Signals for New Physics

This document is one of a series of whitepapers from the USQCD collaboration. Here, we discuss opportunities for Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD) in the research frontier in fundamental symmetries and signals for new physics. LQCD, in synergy with effective field theories and nuclear many-body studies, provides theoretical support to ongoing and planned experimental programs in searches for electric dipole moments of the nucleon, nuclei and atoms, decay of the proton, $n$-$\overline{n}$ oscillations, neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay of a nucleus, conversion of muon to electron, precision measurements of weak decays of the nucleon and of nuclei, precision isotope-shift spectroscopy, as well as direct dark matter detection experiments using nuclear targets. This whitepaper details the objectives of the LQCD program in the area of Fundamental Symmetries within the USQCD collaboration, identifies priorities that can be addressed within the next five years, and elaborates on the areas that will likely demand a high degree of innovation in both numerical and analytical frontiers of the LQCD research.Comment: A whitepaper by the USQCD Collaboration, 30 pages, 9 figure