Pulling strings in real time: flux tube dynamics in (2+1)-d $\mathbb{Z}_2$-Higgs Gauge Theories

Quantum Physics arXiv:2608.27561 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 27 Aug 2026] Title:Pulling strings in real time: flux tube dynamics in (2+1)-d $\mathbb{Z}_2$-Higgs Gauge Theories Authors:Zeno Bacciconi, Martina Frau, Luca Tagliacozzo, Michele Caselle, Marcello Dalmonte View a PDF of the paper titled Pulling strings in real time: flux tube dynamics in (2+1)-d $\mathbb{Z}_2$-Higgs Gauge Theories, by Zeno Bacciconi and 4 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Understanding real-time flux-tube dynamics in more than one spatial dimension is key to unlocking the non-perturbative physics of confinement, and is now actively pursued by quantum computing and simulation experiments. However, describing such dynamics has proven to be extremely challenging with both experiments and state-of-the-art numerical simulations limited to small volumes and short timescales. Here we investigate flux tube statics and real-time evolution in a genuine two-dimensional $\mathbb{Z}_2$ Higgs gauge theory at system sizes and timescales order of magnitude beyond present experiments and numerics. The key enabling element is the recently introduced Clifford-augmented matrix product states (CAMPS) framework, which we demonstrate to parametrically reduce the entanglement that must be represented in the matrix product state; both in the pure-gauge limit and in the presence of dynamical matter. We benchmark this capability through stringent tests of effective string theory, including universal spectral features and flux tube roughening properties in presence of matter. We then introduce a string-pull protocol that selectively excites transverse modes and reconstructs their finite-size spectrum in real time. In the rough regime, the response is collective, and our simulations show that this is also well captured by universal effective string theory predictions. Strong confinement instead produces long-lived, lattice-locked local dynamics persisting to times $tJ \gtrsim 100$. These results provide ab initio evidence that effective string theory captures nonequilibrium string dynamics and reveal a hitherto unexplored long-lived prethermal regime of strongly confined flux tubes, providing a novel angle on how confinement dictates dynamics in more than one spatial dimension. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el); High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) Cite as: arXiv:2608.27561 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2608.27561v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.27561 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Zeno Bacciconi [view email] [v1] Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:00:02 UTC (967 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Pulling strings in real time: flux tube dynamics in (2+1)-d $\mathbb{Z}_2$-Higgs Gauge Theories, by Zeno Bacciconi and 4 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.stat-mech cond-mat.str-el hep-lat hep-th References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... 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