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Title: Theta, time reversal and temperature

Journal Article · · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, ON (Canada)
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  3. Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
  4. Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States)

SU(N) gauge theory is time reversal invariant at θ = 0 and θ = π. We show that at θ = π there is a discrete ’t Hooft anomaly involving time reversal and the center symmetry. This anomaly leads to constraints on the vacua of the theory. It follows that at θ = π the vacuum cannot be a trivial non-degenerate gapped state. (By contrast, the vacuum at θ = 0 is gapped, non-degenerate, and trivial.) Due to the anomaly, the theory admits nontrivial domain walls supporting lower-dimensional theories. Depending on the nature of the vacuum at θ = π, several phase diagrams are possible. Assuming area law for space-like loops, one arrives at an inequality involving the temperatures at which CP and the center symmetry are restored. We also analyze alternative scenarios for SU(2) gauge theory. The underlying symmetry at θ = π is the dihedral group of 8 elements. If deconfined loops are allowed, one can have two O(2)-symmetric fixed points. In conclusion, it may also be that the four-dimensional theory around θ = π is gapless, e.g. a Coulomb phase could match the underlying anomalies.

Research Organization:
California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0011632; SC0009988
OSTI ID:
1389778
Journal Information:
Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Vol. 2017, Issue 5; ISSN 1029-8479
Publisher:
Springer BerlinCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 233 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Aspects of the QCD θ-vacuum journal June 2019
Charting the phase diagram of QCD3 journal August 2019
Novel 3d bosonic dualities from bosonization and holography journal September 2018
QCD domain walls, Chern-Simons theories and holography journal September 2018
Self-conjugate QCD journal October 2019
Large-N ℂℙN −1 sigma model on a Euclidean torus: uniqueness and stability of the vacuum journal December 2019
Study of center and chiral symmetry realization in thermal N = 1 super Yang-Mills theory using the gradient flow journal October 2019
Dihedral symmetry in S U ( N ) Yang-Mills theory journal October 2019
Gauge enhanced quantum criticality and time reversal deconfined domain wall: SU(2) Yang-Mills dynamics with topological terms journal February 2020
Supersymmetric tools in Yang–Mills theories at strong coupling: The beginning of a long journey journal April 2018
Phases Of Adjoint QCD$_3$ And Dualities journal January 2018
Parity and the modular bootstrap journal January 2018
Living on the walls of super-QCD journal January 2019
On gauging finite subgroups journal January 2020
Anomaly-Induced Transport Phenomena from Imaginary-Time Formalism journal May 2019
Effective field theory of force-free electrodynamics journal May 2019
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Vacuum structure of bifundamental gauge theories at finite topological angles text January 2017
Comments on Abelian Higgs Models and Persistent Order text January 2017
Intrinsic and emergent anomalies at deconfined critical points text January 2017
Generalized global symmetries and holography text January 2017
Global Symmetries, Counterterms, and Duality in Chern-Simons Matter Theories with Orthogonal Gauge Groups text January 2017
On gauging finite subgroups text January 2017
Quantum Distillation of Hilbert Spaces, Semi-classics and Anomaly Matching text January 2018
Parity and the modular bootstrap text January 2018
Two-flavor adjoint QCD text January 2018
Anomaly matching, (axial) Schwinger models, and high-T super Yang-Mills domain walls text January 2018
Novel 3d bosonic dualities from bosonization and holography text January 2018
Anomaly constraint on massless QCD and the role of Skyrmions in chiral symmetry breaking text January 2018
Dai-Freed anomalies in particle physics text January 2018
Sigma Models on Flags text January 2018
Effective Field Theory of Force-Free Electrodynamics text January 2018
Domain walls in high-T SU(N) super Yang-Mills theory and QCD(adj) text January 2018
Living on the walls of super-QCD text January 2018
Comments on One-Form Global Symmetries and Their Gauging in 3d and 4d text January 2018
Vacuum Structure of Charge k Two-Dimensional QED and Dynamics of an Anti D-String Near an O1- plane text January 2018
High-temperature domain walls of QCD with imaginary chemical potentials text January 2019
An exact quantization of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity text January 2019
Anomalies in the Space of Coupling Constants and Their Dynamical Applications I text January 2019
Anomalies in the Space of Coupling Constants and Their Dynamical Applications II text January 2019
Gauge Enhanced Quantum Criticality and Time Reversal Domain Wall: SU(2) Yang-Mills Dynamics with Topological Terms text January 2019