It is generally assumed that the vacuum state is the quantum state with the lowest energy. However, it has been shown that this is not the case for a Dirac-Maxwell field in the temporal gauge. In this paper we will present another proof, different from that presented in previous work, which shows that the vacuum state is not the minimum energy state for a Dirac-Maxwell field in the temporal gauge.
In quantum field theory it is generally assumed that there is a lower bound to the energy of a quantum state. Here, it will be shown that there is no lower bound to the energy of physical states in QED in a manifestly covariant gauge.
For over six decades, quantum electrodynamics (QED) in multipolar form has been an invaluable tool for understanding quantum-scale atomic and molecular interactions. However, its relation to the Poincare-gauge has been a recent topic of controversy and debate. It was claimed by Rousseau and Felbacq in the article Scientific Reports 7, 11115 (2017) that Hamiltonian multipolar QED is not the same as Poincare-gauge QED and that it is not generally equivalent to Coulomb-gauge QED. This claim has subsequently been refuted, but since both sides of the debate appear technically sound, a clear reconci…
We study a lattice gauge theory in Wilson's Hamiltonian formalism. In view of the realization of a quantum simulator for QED in one dimension, we introduce an Abelian model with a discrete gauge symmetry $\mathbb{Z}_n$, approximating the $U(1)$ theory for large $n$. We analyze the role of the finiteness of the gauge fields and the properties of physical states, that satisfy a generalized Gauss's law. We finally discuss a possible implementation strategy, that involves an effective dynamics in physical space.
A quantum dipole interacting with an optical cavity is one of the key models in cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity-QED). To treat this system theoretically, the typical approach is to truncate the dipole to two levels. However, it has been shown that in the ultrastrong-coupling regime, this truncation naively destroys gauge invariance. By truncating in a manner consistent with the gauge principle, we introduce master equations {for open systems} to compute gauge-invariant emission spectra, photon flux rates, and quantum correlation functions which show significant disagreement with previou…
In circuit QED, a Rabi model can be derived by truncating the Hilbert space of the anharmonic qubit coupled to a linear, reactive environment. This truncation breaks the gauge invariance present in the full Hamiltonian. We analyze the determination of an optimal gauge such that the differences between the truncated and the full Hamiltonian are minimized. Here, we derive a simple criterion for the optimal gauge. We find that it is determined by the ratio of the anharmonicity of the qubit to an averaged environmental frequency. We demonstrate that the usual choices of flux and charge gauge are n…
In this work we propose two protocols to make an effective gauge potential for microwave photons in circuit QED. The schemes consist of coupled transmons whose flux are harmonically modulated in time. We investigate the effect of various types of capacitive and inductive couplings, and the role of the fixed phase offset of each site on the complex coupling rate between coupled qubits. These configurations can be directly realised in a superconducting circuit and is easily extendable to a scalable lattice. Due to the intrinsic non-linearity of the transmon qubits such lattices would be an ideal…
Starting from the Weyl gauge formulation of quantum electrodynamics (QED), the formalism of quantum-mechanical gauge fixing is extended using techniques from nonrelativistic QED. This involves expressing the redundant gauge degrees of freedom through an arbitrary functional of the gauge-invariant transverse degrees of freedom. Particular choices of functional can be made to yield the Coulomb gauge and Poincaré gauge representations. The Hamiltonian we derive therefore serves as a good starting point for the description of atoms and molecules by means of a relativistic Dirac field. We discuss i…
Systems of interacting charges and fields are ubiquitous in physics. Recently, it has been shown that Hamiltonians derived using different gauges can yield different physical results when matter degrees of freedom are truncated to a few low-lying energy eigenstates. This effect is particularly prominent in the ultra-strong coupling regime. Such ambiguities arise because transformations reshuffle the partition between light and matter degrees of freedom and so level truncation is a gauge dependent approximation. To avoid this gauge ambiguity, we redefine the electromagnetic fields in terms of p…
Gauge invariance is the cornerstone of modern quantum field theory. Recently, it has been shown that the quantum Rabi model, describing the dipolar coupling between a two-level atom and a quantized electromagnetic field, violates this principle. This widely used model describes a plethora of quantum systems and physical processes under different interaction regimes. In the ultrastrong coupling regime, it provides predictions which drastically depend on the chosen gauge. This failure is attributed to the finite-level truncation of the matter system. We show that a careful application of the gau…
The stability of the vacuum for QED in the temporal gauge will be examined. It is generally assumed that the vacuum state is the quantum state with the lowest energy. However, it will be shown that this is not the case for a system consisting of a fermion field coupled to a quantized electromagnetic field in the temporal gauge. It will be shown that for this situation there exist quantum states with less energy than the vacuum state.
Cavity QED models are analyzed in terms of field quadrature operators. We demonstrate that in such representation, the problem can be formulated in terms of effective gauge potentials. In this respect, it presents a completely new system in which gauge fields arise, possessing the advantages of purity, high control of system parameters as well as preparation and detection methods. Studying three well known models, it is shown that either Abelian or non-Abelian gauge potentials can be constructed. The non-Abelian characteristics are evidenced via numerical simulations utilizing experimental par…
We revisit the derivation of Rabi- and Dicke-type models, which are commonly used for the study of quantum light-matter interactions in cavity and circuit QED. We demonstrate that the validity of the two-level approximation, which is an essential step in this derivation, depends explicitly on the choice of gauge once the system enters the ultrastrong coupling regime. In particular, while in the electric dipole gauge the two-level approximation can be performed as long as the Rabi frequency remains much smaller than the energies of all higher-lying levels, it can dramatically fail in the Coulom…
In this paper, operator gauge transformation, first introduced by Kobe, is applied to Maxwell's equations and continuity equation in QED. The gauge invariance is satisfied after quantization of electromagnetic fields. Inherent nonlinearity in Maxwell's equations is obtained as a direct result due to the nonlinearity of the operator gauge transformations. The operator gauge invariant Maxwell's equations and corresponding charge conservation are obtained by defining the generalized derivatives of the first and second kinds. Conservation laws for the real and virtual charges are obtained too. The…
We introduce a way to express compact quantum electrodynamics with dynamical matter on two- and three-dimensional spatial lattices in a gauge redundancy-free manner while preserving translational invariance. By transforming to a rotating frame, where the matter is decoupled from the gauge constraints, we can express the gauge field operators in terms of dual operators. In two space dimensions, the dual representation is completely free of any local constraints. In three space dimensions, local constraints among the dual operators remain but involve only the gauge field degrees of freedom (and …
Ultrastrong-coupling between two-level systems and radiation is important for both fundamental and applied quantum electrodynamics (QED). Such regimes are identified by the breakdown of the rotating-wave approximation, which applied to the quantum Rabi model (QRM) yields the apparently less fundamental Jaynes-Cummings model (JCM). We show that when truncating the material system to two levels, each gauge gives a different description whose predictions vary significantly for ultrastrong-coupling. QRMs are obtained through specific gauge choices, but so too is a JCM without needing the rotating-…
The connection between the Gupta-Bleuler formulation and the Coulomb gauge formulation of QED is discussed. It is argued that the two formulations are not connected by a gauge transformation. Nor can the state space of the Coulomb gauge be identified with a subspace of the Gupta-Bleuler space. Instead a more indirect connection between the two formulations via a detour through the Wightman reconstruction theorem is proposed.
We propose a scalable analog quantum simulator for quantum electrodynamics (QED) in two spatial dimensions. The setup for the U(1) lattice gauge field theory employs inter-species spin-changing collisions in an ultra-cold atomic mixture trapped in an optical lattice. Building on the previous one-dimensional implementation scheme of Ref. [1] we engineer spatial plaquette terms for magnetic fields, thus solving a major obstacle towards experimental realizations of realistic gauge theories in higher dimensions. We apply our approach to pure gauge theory and discuss how the phenomenon of confineme…
The simulation of lattice gauge theories with tensor network (TN) methods is becoming increasingly fruitful. The vision is that such methods will, eventually, be used to simulate theories in $(3+1)$ dimensions in regimes difficult for other methods. So far, however, TN methods have mostly simulated lattice gauge theories in $(1+1)$ dimensions. The aim of this paper is to explore the simulation of quantum electrodynamics (QED) on infinite lattices with TNs, i.e., fermionic matter fields coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field, directly in the thermodynamic limit. With this idea in mind we first conside…
The interplay of symmetry, topology, and many-body effects in the classification of possible phases of matter poses a formidable challenge that is attracting great attention in condensed-matter physics. Such many-body effects are typically induced by inter-particle interactions involving an action at a distance, such as the Coulomb interaction between electrons in a symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase. In this work, we show that similar phenomena also appear in high-energy physics, where inter-particle interactions are mediated by gauge bosons, and constrained by a local gauge symmetry.…
