Wilson lines in the Abelian lattice Higgs model

TL;DR

This paper extends previous work to compute the leading order expected values of Wilson line observables in the abelian lattice Higgs model, revealing insights into phase behavior with a Higgs field.

Contribution

It introduces a refined method to calculate Wilson line expectations in the abelian lattice Higgs model, generalizing earlier results for Wilson loops.

Findings

Calculated leading order of Wilson line expectations

Confirmed physicists' predictions on observable ratios

Extended analysis to models with Higgs fields

Abstract

Lattice gauge theories are lattice approximations of the Yang-Mills theory in physics. The abelian lattice Higgs model is one of the simplest examples of a lattice gauge theory interacting with an external field. In a previous paper~\cite{flv2021}, we calculated the leading order term of the expected value of Wilson loop observables in the low-temperature regime of the abelian lattice Higgs model on $ \mathbb{Z}^4 ,$ with structure group $G = \mathbb{Z}_n $ for some $ n \geq 2. $ In the absence of a Higgs field, these are important observables since they exhibit a phase transition which can be interpreted as distinguishing between regions with and without quark confinement. However, in the presence of a Higgs field, this is no longer the case, and a more relevant family of observables are so-called open Wilson lines. In this paper, we extend and refine the ideas introduced in~\cite{flv2021} to calculate the leading order term of the expected value of the more general Wilson line observables. Using our main result, we then calculate the leading order term of several natural ratios of expected values and confirm the behavior predicted by physicists.