Meson thermalization with a hot medium in the open Schwinger model

TL;DR

This paper uses tensor network algorithms to simulate the thermalization process of mesonic particles in a hot medium within the open lattice Schwinger model, revealing how various parameters affect thermalization time and quantum correlations.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable tensor network approach to study meson thermalization in an open quantum field theory model, with detailed analysis of environmental effects and quantum information measures.

Findings

Thermalization time increases with stronger dissipation and higher environment temperature.

Electric field parity symmetry is accurately preserved in simulations.

Quantum mutual information relates to dynamical observables during thermalization.

Abstract

Quantum field theories treated as open quantum systems provide a crucial framework for studying realistic experimental scenarios, such as quarkonia traversing the quark-gluon plasma produced at the Large Hadron Collider. In such cases, capturing the complex thermalization process requires a detailed understanding of how particles evolve and interact with a hot medium. Considering the open lattice Schwinger model and using tensor network algorithms, we investigate the thermalization dynamics of mesonic particles in a hot medium, such as the Schwinger boson or the electric flux string. We simulate systems with up to 100 lattice sites, achieving accurate preservation of the electric field parity symmetry, demonstrating the algorithm's robustness and scalability. Our results reveal that the thermalization time increases with stronger dissipation from the environment, increasing environment temperature, higher background electric field and heavier fermion masses. Further, we study the quantum mutual information between the two halves of the flux string connecting a meson's constituent particles and analyze its relation to relevant dynamical observables.