U(1)-gauged 2-flavor spin system in 3-D

Abstract

We study a U(1)-gauged 2-component spin system in 3 dimensions. For the gauge fields we use the Villain formulation with a constraint that removes lattice monopoles and in this form couple the gauge fields to 2-component spins. We discuss the simulation strategies for this highly constraint system and present first results for the phase structure. Our preliminary Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the system undergoes a second order phase transition driven by the spin coupling. However, the correlation length critical exponent is inconsistent with the conformal bootstrap constraint for a critical (rather than multi-critical) fixed point, which forces a conclusion that the transition is likely weakly 1st order, passing close to a multi-critical point. To reliably resolve the nature of the transition, simulations on larger lattices will be necessary.

To appear in the Proceedings of "The 41st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory", PoS(LATTICE2024)388