Defect QED: dielectric without a dielectric, monopole without a monopole

DOI10.1007/JHEP11(2019)114zbMATH Open1429.81103arXiv1909.03279OpenAlexW3100590842WikidataQ126746832 ScholiaQ126746832MaRDI QIDQ2292525FDOQ2292525

Authors: G. Grignani, G. W. Semenoff 

Publication date: 3 February 2020

Published in: Journal of High Energy Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We study a class of defect quantum field theories where the quantum field theory in the 3+1-dimensional bulk is a free photon and charged matter and the interactions of the photons with the charges occur entirely on a 2+1-dimensional defect. We observe that at the fully quantum level, the effective action of such a theory is still a defect field theory with free photons propagating in the bulk and the nonlinearities in the quantum corrections to the Maxwell equations confined to the defect. We use this observation to show that the defect field theory has interesting electromagnetic properties. The electromagnetic fields sourced by static test charges are attenuated as if the bulk surrounding them were filled with a dielectric material. This is particularly interesting when the observer and test charge are on opposite sides of the defect. Then the effect is isotropic and it is operative even in the region near the defect. If the defect is in a time reversal violating state, image charges have the appearance of electrically and magnetically charged dyons. We present the example of a single layer in a quantum Hall state. We observe that the charge screening effect in charge neutral graphene should be significant, and even more dramatic when the layer is in a metallic state with mobile electrons.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.03279

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zbMATH Keywords

conformal field theoryfield theories in lower dimensionsquantum Hall state

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Two-dimensional field theories, conformal field theories, etc. in quantum mechanics (81T40) Electromagnetic interaction; quantum electrodynamics (81V10) Many-body theory; quantum Hall effect (81V70)

Cites Work

• Supersymmetric boundary conditions in \(\mathcal{N}=4\) super Yang-Mills theory
• 3d abelian gauge theories at the boundary
• Inducing a magnetic monopole with topological surface states
• Boundary conformal field theory and a boundary central charge
• The method of uniqueness and the optical conductivity of graphene: new application of a powerful technique for multiloop calculations
• Superconformal models for graphene and boundary central charges

Cited In (6)

• FIELD OF HOMOGENEOUS PLANE IN QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS
• Renormalizable mean field calculation in QED with fermion background
• Duality and transport for supersymmetric graphene from the hemisphere partition function
• Composite operators near the boundary
• Supersymmetric graphene on squashed hemisphere
• The Casimir effect in chiral media using path integral techniques

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