Phase transition on superfluid vortices in Higgs-Confinement crossover

Abstract

Abstract We propose a novel method to distinguish states of matter by identifying spontaneous symmetry breaking on extended objects, such as vortices, even in the absence of a bulk phase transition. As a specific example, we investigate the phase transition on superfluid vortices in the Higgs-confinement crossover using a U(1)gauge × U(1)global model in (3 + 1) dimensions. This model exhibits superfluidity of U(1)global symmetry and allows for a crossover between the Higgs and confinement regimes by varying the gauge coupling constant from weak to strong. We demonstrate that, on vortices, spontaneous breaking of the ℤ2 flavor symmetry occurs in the weak coupling (Higgs) regime, while it does not in the strong coupling (confinement) regime. We also confirm that those regimes are separated by a second-order phase transition through Monte Carlo simulations, whose universality class corresponds to the two-dimensional Ising model.

Keywords

• Discrete Symmetries
• Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking