Confinement in the q-state Potts model: an RG-TCSA study

In the ferromagnetic phase of the q-state Potts model, switching on an external magnetic field induces confinement of the domain wall excitations. For the Ising model (q = 2) the spectrum consists of kink-antikink states which are the analogues of mesonic states in QCD, while for q = 3, depending on the sign of the field, the spectrum may also contain three-kink bound states which are the analogues of the baryons. In recent years the resulting hadron spectrum was described using several different approaches, such as quantum mechanics in the confining linear potential, WKB methods and also the Bethe-Salpeter equation. Here we compare the available predictions to numerical results from renormalization group improved truncated conformal space approach (RG-TCSA). While mesonic states in the Ising model have already been considered in a different truncated Hamiltonian approach, this is the first time that a precision numerical study is performed for the 3-state Potts model. We find that the semiclassical approach provides a very accurate description for the mesonic spectrum in all the parameter regime for weak magnetic field, while the low-energy expansion from the Bethe-Salpeter equation is only valid for very weak fields where it gives a slight improvement over the semiclassical results. In addition, we confirm the validity of the recent predictions for the baryon spectrum obtained from solving the quantum mechanical three-body problem.

Studying the Perturbed Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten SU(2)k Theory Using the Truncated Conformal Spectrum Approach

We study the $SU(2)_k$ Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten (WZNW) theory perturbed by the trace of the primary field in the adjoint representation, a theory governing the low-energy behaviour of a class of strongly correlated electronic systems. While the model is non-integrable, its dynamics can be investigated using the numerical technique of the truncated conformal spectrum approach combined with numerical and analytical renormalization groups (TCSA+RG). The numerical results so obtained provide support for a semiclassical analysis valid at $kgg 1$. Namely, we find that the low energy behavior is sensitive to the sign of the coupling constant, $lambda$. Moreover for $lambda>0$ this behavior depends on whether $k$ is even or odd. With $k$ even, we find definitive evidence that the model at low energies is equivalent to the massive $O(3)$ sigma model. For $k$ odd, the numerical evidence is more equivocal, but we find indications that the low energy effective theory is critical.