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Hamiltonian Formulation of Wilson S Lattice Gauge Theories (1975) PDF
Hamiltonian Formulation of Wilson S Lattice Gauge Theories (1975) PDF
Leonard Susskind~
Belfer Graduate School of Science, Yeshiva University, New York,
and Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel
¹w
York
neighboring lattice points Pinks) are denoted by strained by the discrete Dirac equation. Thus„
a position and a lattice vector (r, m, ). The same in order to define fields with finite derivatives,
interval can be denoted (r+ m;, -in;). It will we must introduce two separate fields for even
prove convenient to label lattice sites as odd or and odd lattice sites. In the continuum limit we
even by the following prescription: A site x is represent these two fields as upper and lower
= (-1)' is even
called even (odd) if (- I)"~+"&+"~— components of a four-component Dirac spinor,
(odd). On each lattice site we define a two-com- the upper (lower) components being the fields on
ponent spinor P(r). A discrete Hamiltonian can the even (odd) lattice points. The discrete Dirac
easily be constructed such that it yields the con- equation may then be approximated,
HAMILTONIAN FORMULATION OF WILSON'S LATTICE. . .
i)„, „= —i O' ~
Vg„„,+ m, ( U, &, (r, m) = exp[i 2 T B(r, m)] . (3.2)
(2.5)
The subscript 2 on U denotes the fundamental rep-
e' lower = —j g ~ +1I)
e' upper 04 lower r
resentation of the SU(2) color group. We make
which one can identify as the conventional contin- the convention B(r, m) = —B(r + m, -m). We note
uum Dirac equation. that the Fermi field is associated with the lattice
For physical applications g will have both "color"' points themselves, but the gauge fields are as-
and. ordinary SU(3) indices. The role of color is sociated with /inks between points. This is so be-
to provide a locally conserved quantum number cause the gauge field transports color information
whose vanishing in the finite-energy physical spec- between lattice points. The two indices of the ma-
trum of the theory implies the absence of triality. trix
The quark-confining mechanism then becomes one
U, )2(r, m)', .
of color confinement. To carry this scheme out,
the color degrees of freedom [not the ordinary are identified with the two ends of the link m. The
SU(3)] will be coupled. to colored Yang-Mills upper (lower) index is associated with the begin-
fields. For illustrative purposes we will ignore ning (end) of the link as depicted in Fig. 2. The
ordinary SU(3) and replace the color group by an gauge transformation acts on U(r, m) according to,
SU(2) group.
The transformation of the fermion field under U '(r, m) = V (r ) U (r, m) V ' (r + m) . (3.3)
global gauge transformations reads
Since in general V(r) and V(r+ m) are different,
j)(r) =e''' ~'g(r) =-Vq(r) . (2.6) our gauge-invariant equations will require invari-
The Hamiltonian Eq. (2. 1) is clearly invariant un- ance under right multiplication and. left multiplica-
der such transformations. Since the global trans- tion separately. The matrices U(r, m) can now be
formation rotates the fermion field identically used to convert gauge-noninvariant products of
over all points of space, this global invariance of spatially separated fields to gauge-invariant pro-
the theory still permits color to be compared at ducts. For example, an operator such as,
separated points. This freedom will be lost when |i'(r) q(r+m)
local gauge invariance is built into the theory. '
transforms under gauge transformations to
III. PRINCIPLE OF LOCAL GAUGE INVARIANCE
(z(r) V '(r) V(r+ m) g(r+m) .
A local gauge transformation on the fermion
field is written However, the operator
g(r) =e''' t"' 'g(r)=-V(r) g(r), (3.1) q z(r ) U(r, m) g(r + m) (3.4)
H=a '
+ m,
Q
rim
])r(r)
™
of the fermion fields. We can now apply this pro-
g(-1)"y'(r) q(r) .
to render it gauge-in-
U(r, m) g(r+m)
(3.5)
There is, in fact, no loss of generality in this
procedure. ' l, et us now consider the continuum limit (a-0)
The Hamiltonian in Eq. (2. 1) is not locally gauge- of this Hamiltonian. To do this we write
invariant since it involves the product of fermion
fields at separated points. To compensate this I
&s
g pit(&) ia
+ a' g g't(r)
™
0 m
~
&i ~ ~
B(r, m) /2(1
g( —1)"g'
B(r, m)/2) qi(&+
(r)t/r'(r),
~)
(3.6)
dt
IV. THE RIGID ROTATOR The angular momentum J (generator of space ro-
tations) of the rotator is given by Iid, where I is
In this section we shall consider the nature of the moment of inertia of the rigid body. The Ham-
the gauge-field degree of freedom on a single link. iltonian reads
In ordinary scalar-particle field theory, the field
J ' I 0'
degree of freedom at a point is an anharmonic H = '/(2 I ) = —, I ~' = 2 . (4.1)
oscillator. The derivative terms in the Hamilto- Since the moment of inertia tensor is diagonal,
nian couple adjacent oscillators. In Yang-Mills the Hamiltonian is invariant under individual body
theory the local degree of freedom U(r, nz) is an and space rotations as required by gauge invari-
element of a group. In our example the group is ance. In fact, if f=U, J is the generator of body
G(3). Since this is a non-Abelian compact group, rotations, the Hamiltonian may be rewritten
the topology of the configuration space at a link
is closed and nontrivial. This leads to complex- II = 8'/(2I) . (4.2)
HAMILTONIAN FORMULATION OF WILSON'S LATTICE. . . 399
FIG. 5. Replacing overlapping "spin"-2 flux lines by ternative to the field description is provided by a
lines of "spin" j. configuration space in which a set of closed flux
lines or strings are specified.
U, &, (r, m). We construct the matrix trace, Another way to characterize the gauge-invariant
states is to consider products of the U, (r, m)
U(I') = trU, &, (r, n) U, &, (r +n, m)
where j is not necessarily 2. Again all indices
xU, &, (r+n+ m, l) ~
U, &, (r —s, —s), must be contracted as before, but no link is
covered more than once. The pictorial represen-
where the factors occur in the order indicated by tation associated with this construction involves
the path I'. Obviously U(I') is gauge-invariant. closed paths which can branch as in Fig. 5. Each
One can now apply any product of U(I' )'s to the segment is labeled by a value of j and. the vertices
ground state ~0)o to produce the gauge-invariant involve the proper Clebsch-Gordan coefficients.
subspace. Individual links may be covered more We will construct an example of the equivalence
than once either by an individual I' as in Fig. 4(a) of the two procedures. Consider the paths shown
or by two or more I"s as in Fig. 4(b). Thus an al- in Fig. 6. We associate with them the operator
trU, &, (l) U, &, (2) U, &, (3) U, ~, (4) trU, &, (- 4) U, &, (5) U, &, (6) U, ~2(7) = trU, i, (I) U, ~, (2) U, ~, (3) U, ~, (4)
x trU, ~2 '(4) U, g2(5) U, (2(6) U, (2(7) . (5.4)
Using the identity
(U~(2)', (U~g, ')", = 26' 5, , + 4(trU 'ABUT )(78);~ (T ).. . (5.5)
the operator in Eq. (5.4) can be written as
2 trU, ~, (l) U, ~, (2) U, &, (3) U„~, (5) U, ~, (6) U, ~, (7) + 4 [trU, &, (l) U, &, (2) U, &, (3) v„U, &2(5) U, &, ( )6U, ~, (7) Ts] U, (4)
(5 6)
The equality of Eqs. (5.4) and (5.6) is illustrated field p. We can construct a gauge-invariant state
in Figs. 6 and. V. by considering the lowest eigenstate of the gauge-
The reader should realize through these exam- invariant charge-conjugation-invariant operator
ples that the fact that every index must be match-
ed at each site is the non-Abelian equivalent of the g(-I)" e'(r) ((r)~0)F. (5.7)
continuity of electric flux lines in an Abelian the-
ory. " The state ~0)F is a product of fermion vacua over
B. Yang-Mills theory with fermions all the lattice sites. The product state ~0)=(0)F~O)o
Let us next consider the gauge-invariant states is gauge -invariant.
Now, in addition to the operators U(I') formed
which can be formed when we include the fermion
from closed paths, we can form gauge-invariant
operators from paths with ends (Fig. 8). For ex-
lrs +2
I 7
FIG. 7. Replacing the flux in link 4 of Fig. 6 by j= 0
j
and = 1 flux lines. FIG. 8. A qq state with its accompanying flux line.
402 JOHN KOGUT AND I EONARD SUSSKIND
ample, consider a path I' beginning at r and end- where I is a constant. This expression is, of
ing at site s. One can form the gauge-invariant course, analogous to the energy of an assembly
operators of uncoupled rotators.
Clearly, from the rotator analogy (J = I&a) we
U(I', Z) = jt(~) ZU, &, (r, n) U, ~, (r+n, m)
may deduce the equation of motion
xU, ~ (s —I, I) y(s), (5 6)
B = —z [B,H ] = Q /I . (6.2)
where Z is any spin matrix.
2&&2
This equation states that the operator Q, (r, m) is
The physical significance of the lines between
proportional to the electric flux emanating from
occupied sites is interesting. They represent
the lattice point x in the direction rn. This fact
lines of electric flux. To see this observe that
was noted previously in Secs. IV and V.
the operator Q, (x, m) is proportional to the elec-
In order that the pure Yang-Mills theory be non-
tric field at site x and points in the direction m.
trivial we must introduce terms which couple dif-
At all links where there is no U, &, (x, m), Q+(r, m)
ferent links. To do this we make use of the oper-
gives zero. On the links through which a single
I', has passed, Q+'(r, m) gives j(j+ I). In this ators U(I'). There is a great deal of arbitrariness
in choosing the additional term(s). Following
sense one can think of these lines as containing Wilson4 we pick the simplest object which repro-
electric flux of magnitude [ j(j+ I)]' 2. duces continuum Yang-Mills theory when a-0.
Now that the fermions have been added to the
Accordingly, let us consider the continuum limit
theory, the generator of gauge transformations of U(I'), where I is shown in Fig. 9. As a-0 we
at point x must include the additional operator require as in Sec. III that the field B tend. to zero
@"(r) a v@(r), which generates color rotations of
-a. Thus we write the expansion,
The full gauge-invariance condition on the
space of states becomes 1~ 1 1~ 1~
Ujl2=—1+iagA 2v —2a 2 g 2 A g TA z T+ . ~
II
Q
2-, B'(r, m)+,
ag
trU, I, (r, n) U, &, (r +n, m) U, ~, (r+n+ m, —n) U, &, (r+ m, -m)
The coefficients of the various terms are deter- ~0)=~0)a~0)z;. Evidently in this strong-coupling ap-
mined by requiring that II must have the usual con- proximation there are no fluctuations in the string-
tinuum (a-0) limit. like flux-line states. The energy of a state is
Comparing the first term of Eq. (6.6) with the most easily described in a representation utilizing
energy of a rigid rotator and recalling the corre- the U, (r, m) operators introduced earlier. A typi-
-
spondence B e, we note the correspondence cal state is pictured in Fig. 5. The energy of that
I - a/g'. state receives a contribution from each link equal
to I (i+ I)/(»).
It then follows from Eq. (6.1) that This picture of the strongly coupled Yang-Mills
theory in terms of a collection of stringlike flux
Z-Q+(r, n) =aB(r+n, —n)/g'. lines is the central result of our analysis. It
Finally,recall that the color carried by a link is should be compared with the phenomenological
use of stringlike degrees of freedom which has
Q=IU, (r, n) —I]Q, (4.10') been widely used in describing hadrons. '4
which becomes in the continuum limit An important element of the Yang-Mill. s theory
is that the electric flux is quantized. Since elec-
Q'=(zagA T, )', —A, 2 ~
Wl
A
"q
) r%
V
ic
a, =,8I
3Qg
+tv ttv, (rc)0, r(r,+c, m)tt t, (r +u+m, a)tt-v, (r+ m, -m) +Ha. (0),
) (7 5)
U,
0
, (s l, 1 )$( )sI O—
&
invariant excitation. "
Recall that any localized
box is an eigenvector of II0 with eigenvalue
and is best analyzed graphically. First there are -(-,'+1)/(2I). So, in the strong-coupling limit
4&& —.
terms in which the boxes of V do not overlap with the momentum eigenstates (which are linear super-
the original string connecting the qq pair. They positions with weighting factors e' " of localized
are shown in Fig. 14 and may be regarded as cor- boxes at position x) exhibit no momentum depen-
rections to the vacuum. Next there are correc- dence in their energy spectrum. Now consider
tions in which one of the lines in V overlaps with the effects of V acting upon a localized gauge-in-
the original string. There are two possibilities varaint excitation. The interesting terms occur
as indicated in Figs. 15(a) and 15(b). Namely, the when one of the sides of the gauge-invariant ex-
overlapping flux lines may be parallel or anti- citation coincide with a link in V. This gives rise
parallel. The two diagrams of Fig. 15 may be re- to the states shown in Fig. 18. Allowing V to act
written as in Fig. 16 in terms of j=0 and j=1 flux twice, it may act on the original site of the gauge-
lines. Clearly these corrections cause both the invariant excitation and annihilate it, leaving a
position and structure of the string to fluctuate. displaced gauge-invariant excitation. In this way
The change in energy of the qq configuration can
be computed by standard perturbation theory. Af-
ter subtracting off terms contributing to the vac-
uum energy, we find that the correction is a sum
over the original links of the flux line. The con- q X Xq
tribution of each link is -const/g'. Therefore
the new potential energy is
qX- Xq
qX Xq (b)
FIG. 14. A disconnected contribution to V acting on a FIG. 15. Connected contributions to V acting on a qq
qq state. state.
406 JOHN KOGUT AND LE ONA RD S USSKIND
,.q qX-—
(b)
FIG. 16. Heplacing the doubly excited link in Fig. 3.5 by an unexcited link j
or a = 1 link.
the perturbation can cause the gauge-invariant adjacent box, a box with one line in common or a
excitation to propagate through the lattice. completely overlapping box with ~x, l). The non-
In order to study the propagation properties, we overlapping box contributes
introduce the following notation. We denote ~x, m)
as a gauge-invariant excitation at x with polariza- 0V —V0
H0
1
thereby exhibit a nontrivial dispersion law for So, subtracting out the vacuum energy gives us
these excitations. The first-order matrix element
-13 times the energy of a vacuum box. The count-
of the pe rturbation vanishes identically, ing factor 13 comes from the fact that there are
12 boxes with one line in common with a given box
(l', I IVI', I) =O. and one box which completely overlaps with that
To see this, note that if the box created by V(r, m) box. Another contribution to the matrix element
has no line in common with (r', l'~ or ~r, l), then has an intermediate state with an adjacent box
(r', l'~ V (r, m) r, l) is zero. If it has one or more (Figs. 6 and 7). Finally, there is the case in which
V creates a box completely overlapping ~r, l).
~
l'VV~ 0
l
(b)
%'e must compute the eigenvalues of this matrix.
The possible nonvanishing matrix elements are
as follows. If ~r, l) = ~x', l'), V may create a non-
(c)
FIG. 17. A higher-order correction to a separated
qq state. FIG. 18. V applied to a gauge-invariant excitation.
HAMILTONIAN FORMULATION QF WILSON'8 LATTICE. . .
TABLE I. Matrix elements of V (Eo -H) V corresponding to the propagation of a box ac-
cording to the processes of Fig. 18. The values in the table should be multiplied by a factor
—B. Here k„are the three components of spatial momentum of the box. The components
k; satisfy the constraint -ma &k; &~a
jk, m, & jk, m, & jk, m„&
jk, ».& 2(cosk„+ cosk ) y
~
~ikz +, e-iky +~ik(Z-y) j +eikz +. ~-i' p eik(zm)
jk, m,& 2(coskz +cosk„) ] +~iky +~-ikx+ eik(y~)
jk, m„& 2(cosk +cosk )
have been discussed above. These terms con- Let us now return to the problem of quark con-
tribute a coefficient -B to the matrix element. finement when the fermion piece of the Hamiltonian
Now we can collect together the matrix elements Eq. (6.6) is accounted for. The state with a single
of V(E, II) 'V -in the states jk, t) and jk', l'). They fluctuating flux line connecting two quarks is no
are tabulated in Table I. The energy eigenvalues longer an energy eigenstate, The fermion term
are given by 4x ~(~+1)/(2I) +A plus the eigen- considered as a perturbation describes processes
values of the 3~ 3 matrix of Table I. For small in which a qq pair and its flux line is created. If
momentum in the z direction the eigenvalues and that flux line overlaps with a link of the original
eigenvectors read flux line connecting the initial quarks, it may leave
2I+A. + Bk,' (0, 1, —1) spin 2
that link in an unexcited state (Fig. 20). Thus
these processes allow the original string to break,
'Bk
—I +& + —
(l, a, a) i.e., they screen the long-range interquark forces.
&I +A 6B+s Bk, '-(1, a', a') spin 0
However, they do not allow free quarks to escape
since each segment in Fig. 20 must be colorless.
At rest the three eigenvectors are (0, 1, -1), which This situation is clearly very closely analogous to
is a, spin-2 object, (2, 1, -1), and (1, 1, 1), which the phenomenon of vacuum polarization and screen-
is a rotational singlet. In general it is not possible ing in one-dimensional quantum electrodynamics
to classify these states according to the rotation which also confines quarks" and eliminates long-
group because the lattice has only cubic sym- range forces.
metry. However, if we consider a rotation by 90' Nevertheless, quark confinement can fail in the
about the z axis, we see that the states (1, 1, 1) four-dimensional lattice theory if the very high-
and (2, —1, -1) are invariant. The state (0, -1, 1) order terms in the perturbation-series expansion
changes sign under this rotation and is therefore become important. If the terms in the Hamiltonian
classified as spin 2. which cause fluctuations in the flux line become
dominant, then electric flux will fail to be eol-
X limated along a line between quarks. Then the
Ji long-range force which would permanently bind
Y quarks may disappear.
Xq qX Xq
qX ~ q
~ q
~ Xq
Xq
FIG. 19. Notation for the polarization of a gauge-in- FIG. 20. The possible breaking of a flux line by qf
variant excitation. production.
408 JOHN KOGUT AND LEONARD S USSKIND
*Work supported in part by the National Science Founda- ~~The reader may be confused by the simultaneous use
tion. of two linear vector spaces. Each component of the
)Work supported in part by the National Science Founda- (2j+ 1) -dimensional matrices U, and the (2j+ 1)-
tion under Grant No. GP-38863. dimensional J
vector are operators in the Hilbert
~The earliest discussion of the phenomenon in a field- space of states of the quantum system. The matrices
theoretic framework appears in V. F. Weisskopf, Phys. T, are c numbers in this space. The commutation re-
Rev. 56, 72 (1939). lations refer to this space and not to the (2j+ 1)-dimen-
~M. Gell-Mann and F. E. Low, Phys. Rev. 95, 1300 sional vector space on which T~ acts.
(1954); K. Symanzik, Commun. Math. Phys. 23, 49 ~2lt is the difference because the commutation relations
(1971); C. G. Callan, Phys. Rev. D 5, 3202 (1972). of g differ in sign from those of J. See, for example,
3G. 't Hooft, in Proceedings of the Marseilles Conference L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Quantum Mechanics
on Gauge Theories, 1972 (unpublished); H. D. Politzer, (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass. , 1958),
Phys. Rev. Lett. 30, 1346 (1973); D. J. Gross and ~3The notion of continuous flux lines was invented and
F. Wilczek, Phys. Rev. Lett. 30, 1343 (1973). used by Faraday.
4Kenneth G. Wilson, Phys. Rev. D 10, 2445 (1974). ~4The string model of hadrons was originally suggested
5J. Kogut and Leonard Susskind, Phys. Rev. D 9, 3501 by L. Susskind, Phys. Rev. Lett. 23, 545 (1969). See
(1974) . Y. Nambu, in Symmetries and Quark Models, edited by
6C. N. Yang and R. L. Mills, Phys. Rev. 96, 191 (1954). R. Chand (Gordon and Breach, New York, 1970); H. B.
VLinear force laws have been suggested by E. P, Tryon Nielsen, Nordita report, 1969 (unpublished).
[Phys. Rev. Lett. 28, 1605 (1972)j and more recently ~5However, Wilson's Abelian gauge theory formulated on
by K. Kaufman [private communication from R. P. a lattice has quantized flux since the gauge field B is
Feynman to one of us (L.S.)]. The theories discussed again treated as an angular variable. See Ref. 4 for
in Ref. 5 also have this behavior. details.
For a recent discussion of color quark models, see G. Frye and L. Susskind, Phys. Lett. 31B, 589 (1970).
H. Fritzsch and M. Gell-Mann, in Proceedings of the i~A. Casher, J. Kogut, and Leonard Susskind, Phys. Rev.
XVI International Conference on High Energy Physics, Lett. 31, 792 (1973).
Chicago-Batavia, Ill. , 1972, edited by J. D. Jackson The term magnetic field" refers to ~;, = 8;A; —B, A;
and A. Roberts (NAL, Batavia, Ill. , 1973), Vol. 2,
p. 135.
j
+ ge 8&A &A &, i, = 1, 2, 3.
~9The term symmetric gauge-invariant excitation" in-
~To prove this one can derive the equations of motion dicates the operator 2(trU&U&U3U4+ trU4U&U&U&), where
and explicitly verify that they can be written in a mani- the links 1, 2, 3 and 4 bound a box.
festly gauge-invariant form. For a discussion of and references to the Kadanoff-
The rigid rotator is discussed in H. Goldstein, Class- Wilson block-spin analysis see the review article,
ical Mechanics (Addison-Wesley, Beading, Mass. , K. G. Wilson and J. Kogut, Phys. Rep. 12C, 75 (1974).
1958).