From quantum spin liquids to dynamics of lattice gauge theories

Yi-Ping Huang^1*, Debasish Banerjee¹, Markus Heyl¹

¹Condensed matter physics, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany

* Presenter:Yi-Ping Huang, email:yihu@pks.mpg.de

We know from elementary schools that there are three forms of matter: liquid, gas and solid. Those phases can be understood using statistical mechanics and classical picture. However, there are more phases in nature; especially, there exist phases that need quantum mechanics to have a self-consistent understanding. Those phases are quantum phases of matter. Quantum spin liquid is one of such quantum phases of matter. The effective theories for quantum spin liquids are closely related to lattice gauge theories. Study of gauge theories is thus essential to understand the quantum matter. Recently, trapped ion experiments have demonstrated that it is possible to realize one-dimensional lattice gauge theories and probe the real-time dynamics of lattice gauge theory. I will talk about how gauge structure emerges from lattice models in spin systems and introduce the recent breakthrough in the community. To finish, I will discuss our recent progress on the studies of the lattice gauge theories and dynamical quantum phase transitions.

Keywords: lattice gauge theories, quench dynamics, dynamical quantum phase transition, quantum spin liquids, quantum simulations