U(1) lattice gauge theory and string roughening on a triangular Rydberg array
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2602.06123 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 5 Feb 2026] Title:U(1) lattice gauge theory and string roughening on a triangular Rydberg array Authors:Lisa Bombieri, Torsten V. Zache, Hannes Pichler, Daniel González-Cuadra View a PDF of the paper titled U(1) lattice gauge theory and string roughening on a triangular Rydberg array, by Lisa Bombieri and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Lattice gauge theories (LGTs) describe fundamental interactions in particle physics. A central phenomenon in these theories is confinement, which binds quarks and antiquarks into hadrons through the formation of string-like flux tubes of gauge fields. Simulating confinement dynamics is a challenging task, but recent advances in quantum simulation are enabling the exploration of LGTs in regimes beyond the reach of classical computation. For analog devices, a major difficulty is the realization of strong plaquette interactions, which generate string fluctuations that can drive a roughening transition. Understanding string roughening -- where strong transversal functions lead to an effective restoration of translational symmetry at long distances -- is of central importance in the study of confinement. In this work, we show that string roughening emerges naturally in an analog Rydberg quantum simulator. We first map a triangular Rydberg array onto a (2+1)D U(1) LGT where plaquette terms appear as first-order processes. We study flux strings connecting static charges and demonstrate that, near a deconfined quantum critical point, the string exhibits logarithmic growth of its transverse width as the separation between charges increases, along with the universal Lüscher correction to the confining potential -- both signatures of string roughening. Finally, we investigate the real-time dynamics of an initially rigid string, observing large fluctuations after quenching into the roughening regime, as well as string breaking via particle-pair creation. Our results indicate that rough strings can be realized in experimentally accessible quantum simulators, opening the door to detailed studies of how strong fluctuations influence string-breaking dynamics. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas); Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el); High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) Cite as: arXiv:2602.06123 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2602.06123v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.06123 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Lisa Bombieri [view email] [v1] Thu, 5 Feb 2026 19:00:52 UTC (1,672 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled U(1) lattice gauge theory and string roughening on a triangular Rydberg array, by Lisa Bombieri and 3 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-02 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.quant-gas cond-mat.str-el hep-lat hep-th References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)