Solving the sign problems of the massless lattice Schwinger model with a dual formulation

We derive an exact representation of the massless Schwinger model on the lattice in terms of dual variables which are configurations of loops, dimers and plaquette occupation numbers. When expressed with the dual variables the partition sum has only real and positive terms also when a chemical poten...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Christof Gattringer, Thomas Kloiber, Vasily Sazonov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2015-08-01
Series:Nuclear Physics B
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0550321315002205
Description
Summary:We derive an exact representation of the massless Schwinger model on the lattice in terms of dual variables which are configurations of loops, dimers and plaquette occupation numbers. When expressed with the dual variables the partition sum has only real and positive terms also when a chemical potential or a topological term are added – situations where the conventional representation has a complex action problem. The dual representation allows for Monte Carlo simulations without restrictions on the values of the chemical potential or the vacuum angle.
ISSN:0550-3213
1873-1562