Emergent Photons and New Transitions in the O(3) Sigma Model with Hedgehog Suppression

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how hedgehog suppression in the 2+1D O(3) sigma model leads to a phase with emergent photons and fractionalized spinons, revealing new continuous phase transitions and topological phenomena.

Contribution

It provides a concrete realization of fractionalization with emergent gauge fields in a model with SU(2) symmetry, supported by Monte Carlo simulations and theoretical analysis.

Findings

Emergent photons and spinons in the hedgehog-suppressed phase.

Continuous phase transition distinct from the Heisenberg transition.

Presence of a finite-temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless transition.

Abstract

We study the effect of hedgehog suppression in the O(3) sigma model in D=2+1. We show via Monte Carlo simulations that the sigma model can be disordered while effectively forbidding these point topological defects. The resulting paramagnetic state has gauge charged matter with half-integer spin (spinons) and also an emergent gauge field (photons), whose existence is explicitly demonstrated. Hence, this is an explicit realization of fractionalization in a model with global SU(2) symmetry. The zero temperature ordering transition from this phase is found to be continuous but distinct from the regular Heisenberg ordering transition. We propose that these phases and this phase transition are captured by the {\it noncompact} $CP^1$ model, which contains a pair of bosonic fields coupled to a noncompact U(1) gauge field. Direct simulation of the transition in this model yields critical exponents that support this claim. The easy-plane limit of this model also displays a continuous zero temperature ordering transition, which has the remarkable property of being self-dual. The presence of emergent gauge charge and hence Coulomb interactions is evidenced by the presence of a finite temperature Kosterlitz-Thouless transition associated with the thermal ionization of the gauge charged spinons. Generalization to higher dimensions and the effects of nonzero hedgehog fugacity are discussed.