Screening in two-dimensional gauge theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates screening and string breaking mechanisms in 1+1 dimensional gauge theories, providing insights into Wilson loop behavior and extending analysis to non-integer charges in the Schwinger model.

Contribution

It demonstrates the string breaking mechanism in 1+1D gauge theories and explores non-integer charge effects, connecting to known results on string tension in the Schwinger model.

Findings

Wilson loops have vanishing overlap with broken-string ground state

String breaking mechanism confirmed in 1+1D models

Extension to non-integer charges supports theoretical predictions

Abstract

We analyze the problem of screening in 1+1 dimensional gauge theories. Using QED2 as a warm-up for the non-abelian models we show the mechanism of the string breaking, in particular the vanishing overlap of the Wilson loops to the broken-string ground state that has been conjectured in higher-dimensional analyses. We attempt to extend our analysis to non-integer charges in the quenched and unquenched cases, in pursuit of the numerical check of a renowned result for the string tension between arbitrarily-charged fermions in the massive Schwinger model.