Confinement of Slave-Particles in U(1) Gauge Theories of Strongly-Interacting Electrons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that slave particles in U(1) gauge theories of strongly-interacting electrons are always confined, leading to different low-energy degrees of freedom than the slave particles themselves, and explores the conditions for spin-charge separation.

Contribution

It introduces a dual formulation of the slave-particle representation that makes the no-double occupancy constraint linear and solvable, revealing confinement of slave particles.

Findings

Slave particles are always confined in U(1) gauge theories.

Low-lying degrees of freedom differ from slave particles due to confinement.

Spin-charge separation involves solitons with fractional quantum numbers.

Abstract

We show that slave particles are always confined in U(1) gauge theories of interacting electron systems. Consequently, the low-lying degrees of freedom are different from the slave particles. This is done by constructing a dual formulation of the slave-particle representation in which the no-double occupany constraint becomes linear and, hence, soluble. Spin-charge separation, if it occurs, is due to the existence of solitons with fractional quantum numbers.