We theoretically investigate the impact of the anomalous magnetic moment (AMM) of Dirac fermions on the fermionic Casimir effect under magnetic fields. We formulate it as an extension of the well-known Lifshitz formula. From our formula, we find that the AMM increases the fermionic Casimir energy. In particular, when the AMM is large enough, the Casimir energy is significantly enhanced by the gapless behavior of the lowest Landau level. We also quantitatively estimate the Casimir energy from electron, muon, and constituent quark fields under magnetic fields and propose possible phenomena at finite temperature and fermion density.
The Jordan-Wigner transformation connects spin operators in one-dimensional spin systems and fermionic operators. In this work, we elucidate the relationship between the finite-size corrections in the spin representation and the fermionic Casimir effect in the corresponding fermion representation. In particular, we focus on the ground-state energy of one-dimensional transverse-field Ising and XY models, and show that all finite-size corrections can be interpreted as lattice fermionic Casimir effects. We further find several types of Casimir phenomena, such as the conventional Casimir energy from massless fields, damping behavior from massive fields, vanishing behavior from flat or nonrelativistic bands, and oscillating behavior from the finite-density effect. Our findings establish a dictionary between finite-size corrections in spin chains and fermionic Casimir effects, and provide experimentally relevant platforms for the fermionic Casimir phenomena.
Exceptional points, where eigenvalues and eigenvectors coalesce, are a defining feature of non-Hermitian systems and have been extensively observed in photonic, atomic, and condensed matter systems. However, they have received little attention in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), which is the fundamental theory of quarks, gluons, and hadrons. We propose that imaginary magnetic fields provide a simple realization of non-Hermitian dynamics in hadronic systems. Based on two theoretical approaches, a hadronic effective Lagrangian and a constituent quark model, we compute mass spectra of neutral mesons and find exceptional points separating the real-spectrum and complex-eigenvalue regimes. In small fields, the real spectrum exhibits level attraction between hadronic states, whereas in larger fields, hadrons are deconfined, which is a signature of a field-induced inverted potential. Our findings open a new avenue for studying QCD dynamics in non-Hermitian environments.
The mass spectrum of hadrons in magnetic fields features avoided level-crossing structures arising from the mixing of spin eigenstates. In this work, we investigate the impact of level-crossing dynamics of charmonia subjected to time-dependent magnetic fields, where we particularly focus on the occupation probabilities of two or more states as they undergo transitions at avoided crossings. Using a static spectrum of charmonia in magnetic fields, we construct a multichannel Landau-Zener Hamiltonian. Within this framework, we analyze the time evolution under several representative magnetic-field profiles, including linear ramps and Gaussian decays corresponding to single-passage dynamics, as well as Gaussian pulses realizing double-passage dynamics, and compute the occupation probabilities over a wide range of sweep rates and initial conditions. Our results show that nonadiabatic dynamics, including Landau-Zener transitions and St & uuml;ckelberg interference, strongly influences the occupation probabilities of charmonia. These findings provide new insights into the real-time dynamics of magnetized hadrons and offer useful guidance for future lattice simulation studies.
Strong magnetic fields modify the force that confines quarks inside hadrons and make it direction-dependent. Using quark-antiquark potentials obtained from lattice simulations as inputs to a quark potential model, we investigate how the anisotropic confinement affects the mass spectrum of quarkonium. In the strong-field regime, we find downward mass shifts induced by a softening of the confining potential along the field direction. In particular, the mass shifts of radially excited states are more significant than that of the ground state. For the longitudinal spin eigenstates, the excited-state spectrum strongly depends on the magnetic-field strength, in contrast to the spectrum with conventional isotropic confinement, which is insensitive to the field strength. This provides a clean probe of magnetically induced confinement anisotropy that can be confirmed in future lattice simulations.
Chiral effective theory of light diquarks is revisited. We construct an effective Lagrangian based on the linear representation of three-flavor chiral symmetry. Here, we focus on the effect of a chiral and $U(1)_A$ symmetric term originated from an eight-point quark interaction. From this model, we obtain the mass formulas of scalar, pseudoscalar, vector, and axial-vector diquarks, which also describe the dependence of diquark masses on the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and the $U(1)_A$ anomaly. We regard singly heavy baryons as two-body systems composed of one heavy quark and one diquark and then predict the fate of the mass spectrum and the strong decay widths under chiral symmetry restoration.
We theoretically investigate the Casimir effect originating from Dirac fields in finite-density matter under a magnetic field. In particular, we focus on quark fields in the magnetic dual chiral density wave phase as a possible inhomogeneous ground state of interacting Dirac-fermion systems. In this system, the distance dependence of Casimir energy shows a complex oscillatory behavior by the interplay between the chemical potential, magnetic field, and inhomogeneous ground state. By decomposing the total Casimir energy into contributions of each Landau level, we elucidate what types of Casimir effects are realized from each Landau level: The lowest or some types of higher Landau levels lead to different behaviors of Casimir energies. Furthermore, we point out characteristic behaviors due to level splitting between different fermion flavors, i.e., up and down quarks. These findings provide new insights into Diracfermion (or quark) matter with a finite thickness.
We discuss the properties of the Casimir energy on the lattice spacetime. In general, the Casimir energy is defined with a regularization to eliminate the divergence of zero-point energy for a quantum field. Here, we apply the lattice regularization to define the Casimir energy, where lattice effects are implemented as long as the lattice spacing is nonzero. First, we demonstrate the calculation procedure of the Casimir energies using the naive and Wilson fermions. If the lattice effect appears only at a small number of lattices, we can take the continuum limit to obtain the Casimir energy in the continuum spacetime. As examples of physical systems, we investigate the Casimir energy for electron fields in Dirac/Weyl semimetals, where the lattice effect is correctly contained, and for photon fields in axion electrodynamics, where the continuum result is correctly reproduced.
We investigate the structural modifications of heavy quarkonia in the presence of strong magnetic fields using a constituent quark model. By incorporating the effects of spin mixing and quark Landau levels, we employ a nonrelativistic Hamiltonian that captures the essential features of quark dynamics in a magnetic field. The two-body Schrödinger equation is solved using the cylindrical Gaussian expansion method, which respects the cylindrical symmetry induced by a magnetic field. We extract the corresponding light-front wave function (LFWF) densities and analyze their transverse and longitudinal structures, revealing characteristic features such as transverse momentum broadening. While the longitudinal structure is only slightly modified within the nonrelativistic Hamiltonian, we discuss some corrections that can significantly affect its longitudinal structure. Furthermore, we discuss the structure modifications of excited states and find notable changes in the LFWF densities, and state reshuffling near avoided crossings. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of hadron structure to external magnetic fields and help bridge our understanding to relativistic approaches.
We investigate spatial two-point correlation functions of mesonic operators in two-flavor lattice QCD at high temperatures. The simulated temperatures cover the range T is an element of [147; 330] MeV, where the critical temperature is estimated around 165 MeV. To ensure a good control of the chiral symmetry we employ the M & ouml;bius domain-wall fermion action for two degenerate flavors of quarks. With a lattice cutoff a-1 2.6 GeV, the residual mass is reduced to 0.14 MeV. With the energy spectrum obtained from the screening mass at incremental values of the temperature range, we examine the SU(2)L x SU(2)R chiral symmetry, the anomalous axial U(1), as well as an enhanced symmetry which exchanges the spin degrees of freedom. We also study how the data approaches the perturbative prediction given by twice the Matsubara frequency of free quarks.
The Lifshitz formula is well known as a theoretical approach to investigate the Casimir effect at finite temperature. In this Letter, we generalize the Lifshitz formula to the Casimir effect originating from quantum fields at finite chemical potential. To demonstrate the versatility of this formula, we discuss the typical phenomena of the Casimir effect at finite chemical potential in various systems, such as some boundary conditions, finite temperatures, arbitrary spatial dimensions, and mismatched chemical potentials. This formula can be applied to the Casimir effect in dense quark matter and Dirac/Weyl semimetals, where the chemical potential is regarded as a parameter to control the Casimir effect.
The Casimir effect is known as an attractive force induced by photon fields sandwiched by parallel conducting plates and appears even at zero temperature. It is well known that thermal fluctuations contribute to the Casimir energy, whereas the contribution from finite-density environments is not established. Here, we discuss the typical behaviors of the Casimir effect at finite density. We develop how to define the Casimir energy at finite density and its typical property. Our findings will be applied to fermion systems in quark matter and Dirac/Weyl semimetals.
We uncover novel Casimir effects emerging from quark fields in dense and thin quark matter under vanishing or nonzero magnetic field. Remarkably, in the dual chiral density wave (DCDW) phase, a candidate ground state for dense quark matter the Casimir energy oscillates as a function of the thickness. This discovery highlights a unique oscillatory Casimir phenomenon driven by QCD dynamics in extreme conditions.
We study the $U(1)_A$ anomaly at high temperatures of $N_f=2+1$ lattice QCD with chiral fermions. Gauge ensembles are generated with M\"obius domain-wall (MDW) fermions, and the measurements are reweighted to those with overlap fermions. We report on the results for the Dirac spectra, the $U(1)_A$ susceptibility, and the topological susceptibility in the temperature range of $T=136$, $153$, $175$, and $204$ MeV, where the up and down quark masses are set to be near the physical point as well as at lighter or heavier masses.
We consider the QCD Kondo effect for a single heavy quark in quark matter composed of light quarks with chiral symmetry breaking. Introducing several spinor structures in QCD Kondo condensates, i.e., particle-projected condensate, antiparticle-projected condensate, and normal condensate without projection, we calculate the attractive energy gained by the heavy quark within the mean-field approximation in the path-integral formalism. We show that the normal condensate is favored at low density and the particle-projected condensate is favored at high density, when the light quark has a nonzero mass. We interpret such a density-dependent transition between the two condensates in terms of the Kondo resonances.
The Casimir effect is induced by the interplay between photon fields and boundary conditions, and in particular, photon fields modified in axion electrodynamics may lead to the sign-flipping of the Casimir energy. We propose a theoretical approach to derive the Casimir effect in axion electrodynamics. This approach is based on a lattice regularization and enables us to discuss the dependence on the lattice spacing for the Casimir energy. With this approach, the sign-flipping behavior of the Casimir energy is correctly reproduced. By taking the continuum limit of physical quantity calculated on the lattice, we can obtain the results consistent with the continuum theory. This approach can also be applied to the Casimir effect at nonzero temperature.
There has been a growing interest in non-Hermitian quantum mechanics. The key concepts of quantum mechanics are quantum fluctuations. Quantum fluctuations of quantum fields confined in a finite-size system induce the zero-point energy shift. This quantum phenomenon, the Casimir effect, is one of the most striking phenomena of quantum mechanics in the sense that there are no classical analogs and has been attracting much attention beyond the hierarchy of energy scales, ranging from elementary particle physics to condensed matter physics, together with photonics. However, the non-Hermitian extension of the Casimir effect and the application to spintronics have not yet been investigated enough, although exploring energy sources and developing energy-efficient nanodevices are its central issues. Here we fill this gap. By developing a magnonic analog of the Casimir effect into non-Hermitian systems, we show that this non-Hermitian Casimir effect of magnons is enhanced as the Gilbert damping constant (i.e., the energy dissipation rate) increases. When the damping constant exceeds a critical value, the non-Hermitian Casimir effect of magnons exhibits an oscillating behavior, including a beating one, as a function of the film thickness and is characterized by the exceptional point. Our result suggests that energy dissipation serves as a key ingredient of Casimir engineering.
The Casimir effect is known to be induced from photon fields confined by a small volume, and also its fermionic counterpart has been predicted in a wide range of quantum systems. Here, we investigate what types of Casimir effects can occur from quark fields in dense and thin quark matter. In particular, in the dual chiral density wave, which is a possible ground state of dense quark matter, we find that the Casimir energy oscillates as a function of the thickness of matter. This oscillating Casimir effect is regarded as an analog of that in Weyl semimetals and is attributed to the Weyl points in the momentum space of quark fields. In addition, we show that an oscillation is also induced from the quark Fermi sea, and the total Casimir energy is composed of multiple oscillations.
We develop a mean-field theory of a novel Kondo effect emerging in systems without a Fermi surface, which instead emerges under strong magnetic fields. We determine the magnitude of the Kondo condensate which is a particle pairing composed of conducting Dirac fermions and localized impurities. We focus on the competition between the Kondo effect and the energy gap formation that stems from the pairing among the Dirac fermions leading to the dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. We find that this competition induces a quantum critical point. We also investigate finite-temperature effects. This system at vanishing fermion density can be studied with Monte Carlo lattice simulations which do not suffer from the sign problem.