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# A non-perturbative study of gauge theory on a non-commutative plane

## 1 Introduction

The concept of spaces with NC coordinates has been known for a number of decades (see, e.g. ), before the mathematicians worked out a precise formulation of field theory on such geometries . In the recent years, these NC field theories experienced a tremendous boom, which reflects a wide-spread belief that this variation of standard (commutative) field theory is well motivated. The main reason for this popularity is that they are obtained as low energy limits from string theories and M-theory with antisymmetric tensor fields . Moreover, there may be practical applications to the quantum Hall effect . For recent reviews we refer to refs. .

As an important deviation from standard field theory, the non-commutativity tensor

$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`i[\widehat{x}_\nu ,\widehat{x}_\mu ](\widehat{x}_\mu :\text{ hermitean operators})`$ (1)
$`=`$ $`\theta ϵ_{\mu \nu }(\text{in }d=2)`$
introduces some *non-locality* inside a short range, which is characterized by the scale of the parameter $`\theta `$. This non-locality implies deep conceptual problems, but on the other hand it is considered a virtue which could be crucial for the link to quantum gravity as well as string and M-theory. Moreover, there was originally some hope that this property could help to weaken or even remove the UV divergences .

However, it is exactly the question of renormalizability where NC field theory runs into problems which are even worse than in standard field theory. UV singularities are still present, and in addition new IR singularities are mixed in (this is discussed for instance in ref. ). In perturbation theory, this notorious UV/IR mixing affects certain non-planar diagrams . Intuitively one may grasp from eq. (1) that short distance effects in one direction translate into long range effects in the other directions and vice versa, which causes this kind of mixed singularities in non-planar diagrams, which do not occur in standard field theory. This property poses severe difficulties for the renormalization of perturbation theory, which are not overcome yet. For instance, scalar fields can become unstable (tachyons) due to IR effects as the non-commutativity is switched on . The attempts to renormalize perturbation theory include the methods known from standard field theory (see e.g. ref. ), the application of Wilson’s renormalization group technique , controlling IR divergences in the framework of supersymmetry  and the Hartree method . In spite of some plausibility arguments in favor of perturbative renormalizability, it is an open question if NC quantum field theories do really have finite UV and IR limits. There are even claims that basic NC field theories, like NC QED, are not renormalizable .

Our approach is the non-perturbative study of NC field theory by means of Monte Carlo simulations. In this paper we present — as a pilot project — numeric results for 2d NC gauge theory.111While our simulations were running, a related project was suggested by S. Profumo . In this particular model, the UV/IR mixing does not occur *perturbatively* since there are no UV divergent diagrams in the commutative case. However, such mixing effects are still possible on the non-perturbative level, and indeed our study is going to reveal their existence. For interesting analytical work in this field, see refs. . In particular, Paniak and Szabo worked out an explicit form for the corresponding partition function. Due to Morita equivalence, 2d NC $`U(n)`$ gauge theory can be identified with the twisted Eguchi-Kawai model (TEK)  in the large-$`N`$ limit . The TEK at finite $`N`$ corresponds to lattice NC gauge theory , as we briefly review in section 2. In section 3 we present our simulation results for the TEK, which do reveal that 2d NC gauge theory is renormalizable. We also observe the similarities and differences from commutative gauge theory and discuss their interpretation. Our conclusions are given in section 4.

## 2 The twisted Eguchi-Kawai model as a formulation of NC gauge theory

Back in 1982, Eguchi and Kawai conjectured that standard $`U(N)`$ and $`SU(N)`$ lattice gauge theories may be equivalent to their dimensional reductions to $`d=0`$ (one point) in the large-$`N`$ limit . Then all link variables are replaced by $`U_{x,\mu }U_\mu `$, and the plaquette action simplifies to

$$S_{EK}[U]=N\beta \underset{\mu \nu }{}Tr\left(U_\mu U_\nu U_\mu ^{}U_\nu ^{}\right),$$
(2)
where $`\mu ,\nu =1,\mathrm{},d`$. Eguchi and Kawai proved that the Schwinger-Dyson equations — and therefore the Wilson loops — are unaltered under dimensional reduction, assuming that the $`U(1)^d`$ symmetry of the phases (or center symmetry) is not spontaneously broken. This is correct in $`d=2`$ of course, but in $`d>2`$ it only holds at strong coupling , so the proof for the equivalence to the reduced model (EK equivalence) has only a limited application. However, it was shown recently that a variant of the 4d Eguchi-Kawai model (EK model) surprisingly obeys the area law in a significant range of scale, so EK equivalence may still be in business in some finite regime .

In order to avoid the problem with the limited viability of the proof for EK equivalence, the EK model was soon modified such that the phase symmetries are preserved. This was achieved by the “quenched EK model” , and in even dimensions also by the TEK ,

$$S_{\mathrm{TEK}}[U]=N\beta \underset{\mu \nu }{}𝒵_{\mu \nu }Tr\left(U_\mu U_\nu U_\mu ^{}U_\nu ^{}\right).$$
(3)
The factor $`𝒵_{\mu \nu }`$ represents the *twist*,

$$𝒵_{\mu \nu }=𝒵_{\nu \mu }^{}=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{2\pi ik}{L}\right),(\mu <\nu ),$$
(4)
where $`k`$ is an integer and $`L=N^{2/d}`$ is the size of the system. The usual formulation sets $`k=1`$. Further variants of the TEK have been invented . For numerical studies in $`d>2`$, see refs.  ($`d=4`$) and ref.  ($`d=6`$).

Here we are concerned with the 2d TEK. It seemed for a long time that adding a twist is not highly motivated in $`d=2`$, since there even the ordinary EK model coincides with lattice gauge theory in the planar limit, which was solved analytically by Gross and Witten . This agreement was shown already in the famous ref. , and it seemed likely to hold also with twist at $`N\mathrm{}`$. Still the 2d model was simulated with the $`k=1`$ twist first in ref.  and later in ref. , where the finite $`N`$ effects were studied; but they did still not provide much motivation for including the twist.222A very recent reconsideration of the corresponding EK equivalence is presented in ref. .

However the situation changed suddenly due to a new interpretation of the TEK as an equivalent description of NC gauge theory. The latter can be formulated if we multiply the fields by star products,

$`S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle d^2xTr\left(F_{\mu \nu }(x)F_{\mu \nu }(x)\right)},`$
$`F_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu +ig(A_\mu A_\nu A_\nu A_\mu ).`$ (5)
For completeness we mention that the star product is defined as

$$f(x)g(x)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{i}{2}\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \nu }\frac{}{x_\mu }\frac{}{y_\nu }\right)f(x)g(y)|_{x=y},$$
(6)
and that under a star gauge transformation

$`A_\mu (x)`$ $``$ $`V(x)A_\mu (x)V(x)^{}{\displaystyle \frac{i}{g}}V(x){\displaystyle \frac{}{x_\mu }}V(x)^{},`$ (7)
$`V(x)V(x)^{}=1,`$
the lagrangian $`TrF_{\mu \nu }F_{\mu \nu }`$ is not invariant, but the action in eq. (5) is star gauge invariant.

This new interpretation of twisted reduced models holds in the stringent sense of *“Morita equivalence”*. Roughly speaking, this means that the algebras involved in two models can be mapped onto each other one-to-one, in a way which maps each module and its structure properly from one algebra to the other.333As an even stronger relation, “gauge Morita equivalence” implies that also the connections between two modules are mapped onto each other .

This kind of equivalence was found between NC gauge theory and twisted large-$`N`$ reduced models . That relation was established by embedding the (dynamically generated) coordinates and momenta of the reduced model into matrices. These matrices can be mapped on functions, where the trace turns into an integral and the star products arise, so that one arrives at action (5). The construction of NC $`U(n)`$ gauge theories (for certain $`n\{1,2,\mathrm{}\}`$) works out in this way at $`N=\mathrm{}`$.444On the other hand, there are severe problems in formulating $`SU(n)`$ gauge theory on a NC space. Ref.  pointed out that this transition corresponds to a Morita equivalence. At finite $`N`$ the conditions cannot be matched at the boundaries.

However, in refs.  this mapping was refined and it turned out that certain reduced twisted $`U(N)`$ models at finite $`N`$ correspond to NC Yang-Mills theories on the lattice. The corresponding lattice formulation itself was also elaborated in refs. .555For earlier work on a lattice formulation of NC gauge theory, see e.g. ref. . From the UV/IR mixing it can be understood that such a formulation appears necessarily on a periodic lattice, so that the singularities are consistently regularized, and also the non-commutativity parameter $`\theta `$ takes discrete values. The continuum limit of lattice NC gauge theory coincides precisely with the large-$`N`$ limit of the reduced (twisted, commutative) model. This observation completes the explicit non-perturbative (“constructive”) formulation of NC gauge theory, in a form which can be studied by numerical simulations. This would be very difficult in the direct lattice formulation, due to the problems related to the star product: first it is complicated to introduce star unitary link variables and a measure for them, then one would still have to find a way to compute a discrete version of the star products in action (5).

The $`U(N)`$ symmetry of the twisted reduced models corresponds to the gauge invariance (7) in the NC gauge theories. In the twisted reduced model the formulation of $`U(N)`$ invariant observables (Wilson loops, in particular) is straightforward, and the mapping on NC gauge theories led also to the formulation of NC Wilson loops . This formulation works perfectly on the lattice as well . Various aspects of gauge invariant observables have been investigated in refs. .

In order to remain in the framework of the *discrete Morita equivalence* of refs.  one has to take the large-$`N`$ limit from specific finite $`N`$ TEK formulations. For the 2d TEK this prescription is different from ref. , which used $`k=1`$ and $`N`$ even. For the equivalence to lattice NC gauge theory with rank-one gauge group, the twist in eq. (3) has to be taken as

$$𝒵_{12}=𝒵_{21}^{}=\mathrm{exp}\left(\pi i\frac{(L+1)}{L}\right),$$
(8)
which implies $`2k=L+1`$, hence $`L`$ must be *odd* (and $`L=N`$ in two dimensions). Then there exists an explicit map from matrices onto NC fields . Corresponding to $`N\times N`$ matrices, one obtains fields on a NC torus, which is discretized into a $`N\times N`$ periodic lattice. The number of degrees of freedom matches exactly. The non-commutativity is encoded in the discretized version of the star product, which is used to define products of fields in the action. If we introduce a lattice spacing $`a`$, the (dimensionful) non-commutativity parameter takes the form

$$\theta =\frac{1}{\pi }Na^2.$$
(9)
In the context of EK equivalence, one takes the limit $`N\mathrm{}`$ at fixed $`\beta `$, which ensures the equivalence of the TEK model to $`U(\mathrm{})`$ commutative lattice gauge theory. This is called the *planar* large-$`N`$ limit, since only planar diagrams survive. Then the continuum limit should be taken by sending $`a0`$ along with $`\beta \mathrm{}`$ in a particular way dictated by the coupling constant renormalization. In the present $`d=2`$ case, the coupling constant scaling is purely canonical (see below)

$$\beta a^2.$$
(10)
Now interpreting the TEK as a lattice NC gauge theory, the planar limit corresponds to $`\theta =\mathrm{}`$ due to eq. (9). This is a non-perturbative account of the well-known equivalence between $`\theta =\mathrm{}`$ NC field theory and the corresponding (commutative) planar field theory.

In this paper, we are interested in a continuum limit of the lattice NC gauge theory at *finite* $`\theta `$. According to eq. (9), this requires the large-$`N`$ limit to be taken simultaneously with the continuum limit $`a0`$.666The physical extent of the NC torus $`Na`$ goes to infinity in this limit. In order to obtain a finite torus in the continuum limit, one would have to use a different formulation of lattice NC gauge theory . This also implies that non-planar diagrams are included, but in this specific model they do not involve perturbative UV/IR mixing, as we mentioned in the introduction. As we are going to explain in the next section, $`\beta `$ has to be scaled as a function of the lattice spacing $`a`$ in exactly the same way as in the planar theory. Hence in $`d=2`$ we are going to search for a *double scaling limit* keeping the ratio $`N/\beta `$ constant. The question of renormalizability of 2d NC gauge theory at finite $`\theta `$ can be answered by studying this large-$`N`$ limit of the TEK. If the observables converge to finite values, we can conclude that 2d lattice NC gauge theory does have a finite continuum limit. Our results will also be presented in the next section.

A double scaling limit of the *untwisted* EK model was searched for in ref. . Large-$`N`$ scaling of observables was indeed observed at a fixed ratio $`N/\beta `$, but this combination of parameters was identified empirically. The TEK, on the other hand, was studied only at fixed $`\beta `$ in ref.  and did not reveal systematic finite $`N`$ effects. However, we repeat that the TEK was studied there with twist parameter $`k=1`$ and even values for $`N`$.

## 3 Numeric results

In this section we present our numeric simulation results for the 2d TEK at odd $`N`$, with the twist specified in eq. (8). In the form of eq. (3), the action cannot be simulated with a heat bath algorithm because it is not linear in the matrices $`U_\mu `$. Following ref.  we introduce an auxiliary matrix field $`Q`$, which enters in a gaussian form and which linearizes the action in the $`U_\mu `$,

$`S_{\mathrm{TEK}}[U,Q]`$ $`=`$ $`N\beta {\displaystyle \underset{\mu <\nu }{}}Tr[Q_{\mu \nu }^{}Q_{\mu \nu }Q_{\mu \nu }^{}(t_{\mu \nu }U_\mu U_\nu +t_{\nu \mu }U_\nu U_\mu )`$ (11)
$`(t_{\mu \nu }^{}U_\mu ^{}U_\nu ^{}+t_{\nu \mu }^{}U_\nu ^{}U_\mu ^{})Q_{\mu \nu }].`$
The auxiliary field $`Q`$ consists of general complex $`N\times N`$ matrices, and their integration reproduces the TEK as given in eq. (3), if $`t_{\mu \nu }=\sqrt{𝒵_{\mu \nu }}`$. In this respect, and in all other technical points of the simulation, we follow the methods which were used and described in ref. . For instance, we also update $`SU(2)`$ subgroups of the $`U_\mu `$ matrices, in the spirit of Cabbibo and Marinari .

Table 1 displays the number of configurations that we generated at various $`N`$. Note that the few configurations at our largest values of $`N`$ provide conclusive signals only for part of the observables that we evaluated, see below. In most of our study we fixed

$$\frac{N}{\beta }=32,$$
(12)
which corresponds to

$$\theta =\frac{1}{4\pi }\frac{N}{\beta }=\frac{8}{\pi }2.55$$
(13)
in the continuum limit.

As a point of orientation for the interpretation of our data, we consider the exact solution of planar $`U(\mathrm{})`$ and $`SU(\mathrm{})`$ lattice gauge theory in $`d=2`$ . There the Wilson loop of a rectangle $`I\times J`$ follows the area law

$$w(I\times J)=\mathrm{exp}(\kappa (\beta )IJ),$$
(14)
where the (dimensionless) string tension $`\kappa (\beta )`$ is given by

$$\kappa (\beta )=\{\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{ln}\beta \hfill & \beta \frac{1}{2}\hfill \\ \mathrm{ln}\left(1\frac{1}{4\beta }\right)\hfill & \beta \frac{1}{2}.\hfill \end{array}$$
(15)
In particular, the internal energy amounts to

$$E(\beta )=w(1\times 1)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\beta \hfill & \beta \frac{1}{2}\hfill \\ 1\frac{1}{4\beta }\hfill & \beta \frac{1}{2}\hfill \end{array},$$
(16)
which reveals a third order phase transition.777Note that we are always in the $`\beta 1/2`$ regime for the values of $`N`$ that we are going to consider. Eq. (14) shows how one should tune the bare coupling constant $`\beta `$ as a function of $`a`$ when one takes the continuum limit $`a0`$. In fact in this case the scaling is exact if one takes the lattice spacing $`a`$ to be

$$a=\sqrt{\kappa (\beta )}.$$
(17)
Then the Wilson loop becomes an $`a`$-independent function of the physical area $`a^2IJ`$. From eq. (17) we see that $`\beta `$ should be sent to infinity in the continuum limit as in relation (10).

The EK equivalence implies that the exact result (14) is reproduced by considering the corresponding Wilson loops in the TEK in the large-$`N`$ limit at fixed $`\beta `$. More specifically, we define ‘Wilson loops’ in the TEK model as

$$W_{\mu \nu }(I\times J)=\left(𝒵_{\mu \nu }\right)^{IJ}Tr\left(U_\mu ^IU_\nu ^JU_\mu ^IU_\nu ^J\right),$$
(18)
where $`I,J=1,2,\mathrm{}`$. For $`I=J=1`$ it reduces to the plaquette, which appears in the action (3). Then the EK equivalence states that

$$\underset{N\mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{1}{N}W_{12}(I\times J)=w(I\times J),$$
(19)
at fixed $`\beta `$. Here the term $`w(I\times J)`$ is the expectation value of Wilson loop in the $`U(\mathrm{})`$ lattice gauge theory, given by eq. (14).

Let us now consider Wilson loops in NC gauge theory. Since the Wilson loop (18) in the TEK model is $`U(N)`$ invariant, it defines a star gauge invariant observable upon mapping the matrices onto NC fields . This is precisely what we consider as the Wilson loop in NC gauge theory on the lattice . Now we take the large-$`N`$ limit together with the continuum limit $`a0`$ in order to obtain a finite non-commutativity parameter $`\theta `$ in eq. (9). We define a “lattice spacing” as in the planar theory, i.e. as in eq. (17). Then the Wilson loop still agrees with the planar result (14) when the physical extent of the Wilson loop is much smaller than the non-commutativity scale $`\sqrt{\theta }`$. (In the limit $`\theta \mathrm{}`$ it agrees with the planar result for arbitrarily large area, as we mentioned before.) Therefore, the scaling in the small area regime requires the lattice spacing to be chosen in the same way as in the planar theory. The first interesting question is now whether the scaling of the Wilson loop extends also to larger areas.

In the EK model it was observed that square shaped Wilson loops converge faster to the known exact results in the planar limit than other rectangles with the same area . Hence we also focus on square shaped Wilson loops here, which corresponds to the $`I=J`$ case in definition (18). We define the normalized Wilson loop

$$W(I)=\frac{1}{N}W_{12}(I\times I),$$
(20)
which should agree with $`w(I\times I)`$ in eq. (14) when $`aI\sqrt{\theta }`$. Due to the presence of the twist, there is no invariance under the parity transformation $`U_1U_2`$, $`U_2U_1`$. As a consequence, $`W_{\mu \nu }`$ is complex in general, and $`W_{12}=W_{21}^{}`$, hence the Wilson loop depends on its orientation. The real part represents an average over both orientations. Figure 1 shows the real part $`\text{Re}[W(I)]`$ as a function of the physical loop area.

Large-$`N`$ scaling is clearly confirmed. At small up to moderate areas, the Wilson loop follows the area law of planar lattice gauge theory given in eq. (14), but at large areas it deviates and the real part oscillates around zero instead. This observation is consistent over a wide range of $`N`$. Remarkably, not even the absolute value decays monotonously; at large areas it seems to fluctuate around an approximately constant value. This is illustrated in figure 2 (on top).

Figure 2 (below) shows that beyond the Gross-Witten regime, the phase increases *linearly* (in the physical area) in the large-$`N`$ limit. Additional measurements at $`N/\beta =16`$, 24 and 48, corresponding to different values of $`\theta `$, reveal that the phase $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ of the Wilson loop $`W(I)`$ (beyond the Gross-Witten regime) is, in fact, given to a very high precision by the simple relation

$$\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{A}{\theta },$$
(21)
where $`A`$ is the physical loop area, see figure 3. This has been confirmed also for other (non-square) rectangular Wilson loops, which shows that the effect does not depend on the shape of the Wilson loop.888Note, however, that the expectation values of Wilson loops with the same area but with different shapes have in general different absolute values in the double scaling limit. Indeed the formula (21) agrees with the Aharonov-Bohm effect in the presence of a constant magnetic field $`B=1/\theta `$ across the plane. This is reminiscent of the description of NC gauge theory by Seiberg and Witten . Our numeric results seem to support a picture of that kind, which is also known in solid state physics .

The observed large area behavior of the Wilson loop confirms that the continuum limit of NC gauge theory is different from any *ordinary* (commutative) gauge theory, hence we have found a new universality class. Naively one might think that in the large area regime $`A\sqrt{\theta }`$, the effect of non-commutativity is invisible. The fact that we do observe the contrary can be understood as a manifestation of non-perturbative UV/IR mixing. This observation also implies that the limit $`\theta 0`$ does not commute with the continuum limit.

In the double scaling limit of the untwisted EK model, the expectation value of the Wilson loop is real, and it remains positive even at large physical areas . This means that the two models, twisted and untwisted, yield qualitatively *different double scaling limits*, although they become identical in the planar large-$`N`$ limit.

Figure 4 shows the connected Wilson loop 2-point function

$$G_2^{(W)}(I)=W_{12}(I\times I)W_{21}(I\times I)W_{12}(I\times I)W_{21}(I\times I),$$
(22)
again plotted against the physical area, for $`I=1,\mathrm{},N`$. Here we include a wave function renormalization factor

$$G_2^{(W)}\beta ^{0.6}G_2^{(W)}.$$
(23)
The exponent $`0.6`$ was found to be optimal for $`G_2^{(W)}`$ to scale. Indeed it leads to a neat large-$`N`$ scaling in some regime.

Next we consider the Polyakov line

$$P_\mu (I)=Tr\left(U_\mu ^I\right),$$
(24)
which is also $`U(N)`$ invariant and therefore has an interpretation as a star gauge invariant observable in NC gauge theory. In fact Polyakov lines are mapped to *open* Wilson lines which carry non-zero total momentum . Their momentum $`\stackrel{}{p}`$ is related to the separation vector $`\stackrel{}{v}`$ between the two ends of the line. In general the relation is given by $`v_\mu =\mathrm{\Theta }_{\mu \nu }p_\nu `$ modulo the periodicity of the torus. In the present case, the Polyakov line $`P_\mu (I)`$ corresponds to a momentum mode with $`p_\nu =2\pi \mathrm{}/(Na)`$, where the integer $`\mathrm{}`$ is given by $`I/2`$ and by $`(I+N)/2`$ for even and odd $`I`$, respectively. In what follows, we plot the results against $`aI`$ for even $`I=2,\mathrm{},N1`$.

The phase symmetry999In the terminology of NC gauge theory, this corresponds to momentum conservation. makes $`P_\mu (I)`$ vanish, but the connected $`n`$-point functions ($`n>1`$) of Polyakov lines are sensible observables. In figure 5 we show the 2-point function101010The choice of the direction $`\mu `$ is irrelevant. In practice we average over both possibilities in order to enhance the statistics.

$$G_2^{(P)}(I)=P_\mu (I)P_\mu (I),$$
(25)
where $`P_\mu (I)=Tr(U_\mu ^I)`$. Note that there is no disconnected part in $`G_2^{(P)}`$. Again we insert the wave function renormalization which was optimal for the Wilson 2-point function,

$$G_2^{(P)}\beta ^{0.6}G_2^{(P)}.$$
(26)
As a function of the physical length $`aI`$, the result is consistent with large-$`N`$ scaling, as well as a *universal* wave function renormalization. A similar wave function renormalization was also observed in the EK model , where the optimal factor in relation (26) is modified to $`\beta ^{0.65}`$.

Our statistics was not sufficient to extract conclusive signals for the connected parts of 3-point functions or even 4-point functions. For completeness we present nevertheless our result for

$$G_3^{(P)}(I)=P_\mu (I)P_\mu (I)P_\mu (2I)$$
(27)
(there is still no disconnected part). In figure 6 we show our data after re-scaling, if we assume a universal wave function renormalization, which is not ruled out. This means that any $`n`$-point function is renormalized as $`G_n\beta ^{0.6n/2}G_n`$ (for $`n2`$).

## 4 Conclusions

We have investigated the 2d TEK in the form which allows for a mapping onto 2d NC gauge theory on the lattice, by discrete Morita equivalence. In this representation as a twisted reduced model, NC gauge theory takes a form which can be simulated numerically. It requires the specific twist given in eq. (8) and odd values of $`N`$.

The first conclusion from our simulation results is that we do observe a double scaling limit as $`N,\beta \mathrm{}`$. This corresponds to the continuum limit of the NC rank-one gauge theory, which has therefore also finite observables. This observation demonstrates the non-perturbative renormalizability of 2d NC rank-one gauge theory.

The Wilson loop follows an area law at small physical areas, and in this regime NC gauge theory agrees with planar standard gauge theory. However, at larger areas the Wilson loop becomes complex and the real part (the mean values over both loop orientations) begins to oscillate around zero. The phase is proportional to the physical area enclosed by the Wilson loop, irrespectively of its shape, and the coefficient of proportionality is given by the inverse of the non-commutativity parameter $`\theta `$. This agrees with the Aharonov-Bohm effect in the presence of a constant magnetic background field

$$B=\frac{1}{\theta }.$$
(28)
Our results support this law, which is also a key element of the Seiberg and Witten description of NC gauge theory . Moreover, the same law also occurs in condensed matter physics: if one assumes a plane crossed by a constant magnetic flux, then the electrons in this plane can be projected to the lowest Landau level in a NC space, where $`\theta =\mathrm{}c/eB`$ .

The behavior of the Wilson loop at large areas implies that we have found a qualitatively new universality class. At first sight, it may look surprising that the non-commutativity — which introduces a short-ranged non-locality in the action — changes the IR behavior of the gauge theory completely. However, this effect does not appear unnatural in the presence of UV/IR mixing. It is remarkable that this mixing effect does not occur in the perturbative expansion of this model, hence our results for large Wilson loops reveal a purely non-perturbative UV/IR mixing.

For the connected Wilson loop 2-point function, as well as the 2-point function of the Polyakov line, we can confirm the large-$`N`$ scaling. These observables are in agreement with a universal wave function renormalization, which yields a factor $`\beta ^{0.6}`$ for a connected $`2`$-point function. This is similar to — but not identical with — the universal renormalization factor which was found for the (untwisted) EK model.111111On the other hand, in the hermitean matrix version of the (untwisted) reduced model, the universal wave function renormalization holds only in the presence of supersymmetry .

Finally we should mention that in $`d>2`$, NC field theories are often formulated such that the time coordinate is *not* included in the non-commutativity. Including it causes especially severe conceptual problems regarding causality etc. Therefore it would be important to confirm non-perturbative renormalizability also in higher dimensions, where non-commutativity is introduced only between spatial coordinates. We are currently simulating the 3d NC $`\varphi ^4`$ model , which can also be mapped onto a twisted reduced matrix model . A self consistent one-loop analysis in $`d=4`$ suggests the appearance of an interesting phase diagram .

###### Acknowledgments.

It is a pleasure to thank Harald Dorn, Philippe de Forcrand and Richard Szabo for inspiring remarks.


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# Shubnikov - de Haas effect in the quantum vortex liquid state of the organic superconductor 𝜅-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2

## I Introduction

After the report of the magnetic quantum oscillations in the superconducting state of 2H-NbSe2 more than quarter century ago,graebner  the oscillations of the magnetization, de Haas - van Alphen (dHvA) effect, in the vortex state seems to be confirmed experimentally for a variety of the type-II superconductors in the last decade.janssen  Common experimental results of the dHvA oscillations in the superconducting state are that the additional damping of the oscillation amplitude appears below the upper critical field $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ with respect to the normal state damping. The additional damping has been discussed in several ways theoretically.maniv1  The questions in those discussions are summarized as follows;maniv1  (1) if the superconducting gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ exists in the vortex state just below $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$, it would have drastically damped the oscillations at low temperatures by a factor of $`\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta }_0/k_BT)`$, (2) the inhomogeneous field distribution due to the flux lattice would broaden the Landau levels, and (3) the inhomogeneity in the superconducting order parameter associated with the vortex lattice leads to inhomogeneous broadening of the Landau levels in the quasiparticle spectrum near the Fermi surface. Thus the oscillations include basically rich information on the quasiparticle in magnetic fields and also the vortex matter properties.blatter

Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations in the superconducting state is very difficult to be observed because the finite resistivity is needed inevitably. Then it can appear in the quite limited field-temperature region where the long-range translational order of the vortices is lost. Quasi two dimensional (Q2D) organic superconductors are good candidate for the observation of SdH effect in the vortex state because large fluctuations induce the wide vortex liquid region.lang1 ; friemel  At low temperature below 1 K, the quantum vortex liquid (QVL) is realized in $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2 ($`T_\mathrm{c}`$ 10 K) due to the large quantum fluctuation instead of the thermal one.sasaki1 ; mola  In the QVL region, the finite resistivity is expected to remain even below $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}(T0)`$. Recently the transport properties in the QVL region have been examined in detail, and the finite resistivity has been confirmed.sasaki2

In this paper, we report the SdH oscillations observed in the QVL region of the Q2D organic superconductor $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2. An additional damping of the oscillation amplitude appears on both the SdH and dHvA effects around $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$, which may come from the superconducting fluctuation. At lower temperature in the QVL region, however, the stronger damping is observed only on the SdH effect. The different magnetic field dependence of the additional damping of the oscillation amplitude between the SdH and dHvA effects is discussed in connection with the effect of the transport current on the short-range order of vortices in the quantum vortex slush statesasaki2  reported at the same temperature and magnetic field region.

## II Experiment

High quality single crystals of $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2 were grown by an electrochemical oxidation method. The magnetic torque measurements were performed by using precision capacitance torquemeter. The in-plane and the out of plane resistivities were measured along the $`b`$ and $`a^{}`$ axes, respectively, by means of a conventional ac or dc four terminal method. The electrical terminals were made of evaporated gold films, and gold wires (10 $`\mu `$m) were glued onto the films with gold or silver paint. The contact resistance was about 10 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ for each contact at room temperature, but it became less than 1 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ at low temperature where the experiments were carried out. The torquemeter and the samples for the resistivity measurements were fixed to the single axis rotation holder which can change the sample direction with respect to the magnetic field with the accuracy of 0.05 degree. The holder with the samples was cooled slowly from room temperature to 4.2 K in 48 hours and specially slow cooling rate was used between 50 and 75 K in order to avoid the disorder of the terminal ethylene group of the BEDT-TTF molecules. mueller1  The holder was directly immersed in liquid 3He of the refrigerator which was combined with a 15 T superconducting magnet at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory for Superconducting Materials (HFLSM), IMR, Tohoku University. The results presented in this paper were obtained on three samples #1 for the magnetic torque, and #2 and #3 for the resistivity measurements from different batches. We found that other one sample for the magnetic torque and one sample for the resistivity gave qualitatively similar results which were not presented in this paper.

## III Results and discussion

Figure 1 shows the magnetic torque curves of the sample #1 at $`T=`$ 0.52 K. The overall features are the same with the previous report;sasaki1  the irreversible and reversible regions are separated at $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ 3 T (Fig. 1(b)), and the dHvA oscillations with one fundamental frequency of $`F_\alpha =`$ 599 $`\pm `$ 2 T are observed in both the normal and superconducting states. The quality of the sample used in this study seems to be better than that in the previous worksasaki1  judging from the large amplitude of the dHvA oscillations. The reversible magnetic torque region ($`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ 3 T $`<H<`$ $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ 7 T) below 1 K is expected to be the QVL region. The finite resistivity appears in the QVL region even at $`T`$ 0. The detail of the transport properties in the QVL region has been already reported.sasaki2  It is noted only here that a weak non-linear behavior of the resistivity is found in the QVL region. Such non-linearity is not observed in the thermal vortex liquid (TVL) region above 1 K. The concept of the quantum vortex slush has been proposed for the non-linear behavior below 1 K. The vortex slush with only the short-range order of vortices has been found in the high-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ oxides.worthington ; nishizaki ; nonomura  The effect of the quantum vortex slush and the TVL states on the dHvA and SdH effects will be discussed latter.

Figure 2 shows the magnetic field dependence of the resistivity in the sample #2 at $`T=`$ 0.52 K. The in-plane ($`\rho _b`$) and the out of plane ($`\rho _a`$) resistivities are measured in one single crystal along the $`b`$ and $`a^{}`$-axes, respectively. The magnitude of the magnetic field dependence of the resistivity and the resistivity onset corresponding to $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ are not influenced by the applied current density in both configurations. The flux flow resistivity in the QVL region, however, changes a little with the current density because of the weak non-linear resistance.sasaki2  The two curves in this figure are measured using the current density (current) of $`J=`$ 0.16 A/cm2 ($`I=`$ 100 $`\mu `$A) for $`\rho _b`$ and 1.6 mA/cm2 (10 $`\mu `$A) for $`\rho _a`$, respectively. The SdH oscillations with the frequency of 599 $`\pm `$ 2 T are clearly observed. The oscillations come from the $`\alpha `$-orbit centered at the Z-point of the first Brillouin zone depicted in the upper left inset. In higher magnetic fields, the magnetic breakdown orbit $`\beta `$, consisting of the $`\alpha `$ and opened $`\gamma `$ orbits, has been observed in both SdH and dHvA oscillations.sasaki3 ; meyer  We, however, restrict ourselves to the single band model for the following analysis and discussion on the SdH and dHvA effects because the magnetic field used in the present study is smaller than the magnetic breakdown field.sasaki3 ; meyer  The amplitude of the SdH oscillation on $`\rho _a`$ is much larger than that on $`\rho _b`$, although the magnitude of the magnetic field dependence of the resistivity is almost the same with two configurations. The reason is not known at present but the similar tendency is commonly seen in the Q2D organic conductors.singleton1

In order to see the SdH oscillations in low magnetic field region, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma /\sigma _\mathrm{n}`$ is shown in the lower right inset of Fig. 2. Here, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma `$ is the oscillatory part of the conductivity obtained by subtracting the non-oscillatory part of the conductivity, and $`\sigma _\mathrm{n}`$ ($`\rho _\mathrm{n}^1`$) is the normal conductivity which is the same with the non-oscillatory part of the conductivity in the normal state. In the vortex state below about 7 T, SdH oscillations come from the normal (quasi particle) component of the total conductivity which includes additional non-equilibrium superconducting component due to the vortex pinning. The normal (quasi particle) part of the conductivity roughly corresponds to the flux flow conductivity. Then the normal resistivity $`\rho _\mathrm{n}(\sigma _\mathrm{n}^1)`$ in the vortex state is assumed to be extrapolated smoothly from the normal state into the vortex state toward $`\rho =`$ 0 at $`H=`$ 0. The dotted line in Fig. 2 shows the normal (quasi particle) resistivity $`\rho _\mathrm{n}(\sigma _\mathrm{n}^1)`$ in the normal (vortex) state. The line is obtained as almost linear in the vortex state and passing through the middle of the SdH oscillations in the normal state. In intermediate region around 7 T, two lines are connected smoothly by the simple second order polynomial function. The SdH oscillation is persisting down to about 5 T where the resistivity is about 30 % of the normal state value ($``$ 1.5 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$cm at 7 T). In the other sample #3 the oscillations can be seen in lower magnetic field of about 4.5 T, which are shown latter in Fig. 4. This is first unambiguous observation of the SdH oscillations on the flux flow resistance in the well characterized superconductor. Similar SdH effect in the superconducting state has been reported in the $`\beta ^{\prime \prime }`$-type BEDT-TTF organic superconductor.wosnitza  But it did not show the additional amplitude damping in both the SdH and dHvA oscillations in the superconducting state. It may be necessary to consider the smaller $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ value reported by another groupmueller2  than the value expected in Ref. wosnitza, .

The additional damping of the SdH and dHvA oscillation amplitude in the vortex state is demonstrated in Fig. 3. The oscillation amplitude $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma /\sigma _\mathrm{n}`$ for the dHvA and SdH effects is shown by the circles in Figs. 3(a) and 3(b), respectively. In the normal state above about 7 T, both oscillation amplitude are well described by the standard Lifshitz-Kosevich (LK) formula.shoenberg  The amplitude $`A_{\mathrm{LK}}`$ of the first harmonics of the oscillations in the single band is given by $`A_{\mathrm{LK}}TH^nR_TR_DR_S`$, where the temperature factor $`R_T=(\lambda m_cT/H)/\mathrm{sinh}(\lambda m_cT/H)`$, the Dingle factor $`R_D=\mathrm{exp}(\lambda m_bT_D/H)`$, and the spin factor $`R_S=\mathrm{cos}(\pi gm_b/2m_0)`$. Here, $`\lambda 2\pi ^2ck_B/e\mathrm{}=`$ 14.69 T/K, $`m_b`$, $`m_c`$ and $`m_0`$ are the band, cyclotron effective and free electron masses, and $`T_D`$ is the Dingle temperature related to the scattering rate $`\tau _0`$ with $`T_D=\mathrm{}/2\pi k_B\tau _0`$. The power $`n`$ of $`H`$ depends on the measured quantity and the dimensionality. For the SdH and torque-dHvA amplitude ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma /\sigma _\mathrm{n}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau `$) in the 3D (2D) case, $`n`$ is 3/2 (1). The fitting in both cases are very good with $`m_c=3.5m_0`$ and $`T_D=0.26\pm `$ 0.05 K $`(0.17\pm 0.03`$ K) for dHvA and $`0.24\pm 0.05`$ K $`(0.16\pm 0.03`$ K) for SdH effects in the 3D (2D) case.mass  The 2D formula, however, is adopted for the latter analysis. Because the quantized Landau level spacing in the present magnetic field region is considered to be fairly larger than the interlayer transfer integral of this Q2D organic superconductor.singleton2

Below about 7T the amplitude starts to deviate smoothly downward from $`A_{\mathrm{LK}}`$ in both dHvA and SdH effects. This indicates the additional amplitude damping in the vortex state, which has been reported so far on the dHvA effect in $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2.sasaki1 ; ito ; wel ; clayton  The origin of such smooth damping has been discussed on the basis of the model of the quasiparticle scattering by the random vortex lattice with the large superconducting (vortex) fluctuation around the mean field $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$.maniv1 ; clayton  In the approach by Maniv et al.,maniv1  the additional damping term $`R_{\mathrm{SC}}`$ as being multiplied to $`A_{\mathrm{LK}}`$ is $`R_{\mathrm{SC}}=\mathrm{exp}(\pi ^{3/2}|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}|^2/n_F^{1/2})`$, where $`n_FE_F/\mathrm{}\omega _c`$, $`\omega _ceH/m_cc`$, $`E_F`$ the Fermi energy, and $`|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}|^2`$ is the mean square of the superconducting order parameter averaged over space coordinates. The tilde above $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ indicates that energy is measured in units of $`\mathrm{}\omega _c`$. This expression is very similar to the Maki Stephen type mean field approach.maki ; stephen ; clayton  In a simple analytic expression derived by Maniv et al.,maniv1  $`|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Delta }}|^2(\alpha /\beta )[1+\mathrm{exp}(x^2)/2x_{\mathrm{}}^x\mathrm{exp}(y^2)𝑑y]`$, where $`\alpha =(1/2\mathrm{}\omega _c)\mathrm{ln}\sqrt{H_{\mathrm{c2}}/H}`$, $`\beta =1.38/n_F(\mathrm{}\omega _c)^3`$, and $`x=\alpha /\sqrt{2\beta k_BT}`$. Ito et al.ito  and Clayton et al.clayton  have used an approximated interpolation formula for the mean square of the gap function, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }|^2=\sqrt{[\mathrm{\Delta }(0)^2(1H/H_{\mathrm{c2}})/2]^2+\alpha (T)^2}+\mathrm{\Delta }(0)^2(1H/H_{\mathrm{c2}})/2`$, where $`\alpha (T)`$ is a temperature dependent parameter to scale the fluctuations. Both calculations of $`R_{\mathrm{SC}}`$ are shown in Fig. 3(c) by using the same mean field $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}=`$ 4.8 T. The results on $`R_{\mathrm{SC}}`$ are in fairly good agreement with each other.

The dotted curves in Figs. 3(a) and 3(b) show the expected magnetic field dependence of the oscillation amplitude taking $`R_{\mathrm{SC}}`$ into account. The dHvA effect is well represented in these fluctuation approaches as has been reported.maniv1 ; ito ; clayton  In the SdH effect, the experimental results follow well $`A_{\mathrm{LK}}^{2\mathrm{D}}R_{\mathrm{SC}}`$ near $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ 7 T as well as the dHvA effect. A stronger damping, however, appears below about 6.5 T in only the SdH effect.

We discuss the stronger damping in the vortex state observed only in the SdH effect in connection with the quantum vortex slush state at low temperature. In the QVL region the finite resistance appears in the vortex liquid state between the melting $`H_m`$ or irreversible field $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}`$ and $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ even at $`T0`$. In the case of less or no quantum fluctuation, the zero resistance should appear just below $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ and $`H_m(T)`$ or $`H_{\mathrm{irr}}(T)`$ coincides with $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}(T)`$ at $`T=0`$. The former QVL region has been actually found in $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2 as a demonstration of the importance of the quantum fluctuations in this material.sasaki1 ; mola  Recently two vortex liquid regions have been found at low temperature.sasaki2  The low resistivity state with non-linear current response below about 1 K has been distinguished from the high resistivity state at higher temperature. A steep drop of the resistivity around $`T_\mathrm{L}`$ 1 K separates the vortex liquid state into these two regions. The short-range order of vortices has been expected to exist in the former low resistivity state referred to as the quantum vortex slush state. Because these features in the low resistivity state are phenomenologically similar to the observations explained by the the vortex slush concept with the short-range order of vortices in the high-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ oxides.worthington ; nishizaki ; nonomura  The latter high resistivity state has been considered as the thermal vortex liquid (TVL) state where no translational long-range order of vortices is formed.

Since the additional damping of the oscillation amplitude in the vortex state is explained to be sensitive to the local phase modulation of the superconducting order parameter,maniv1  some kind of perturbation on the vortices, for example, applying the transport current in the SdH measurements, are expected to influence the phase coherence. It is noted that both dHvA and SdH oscillations in this experiment are measured in the quantum vortex slush region. In the case of such measurements in the TVL state, the additional damping in the vortex state is expected to be the same in dHvA and SdH effects because TVL does not have any order of vortices. Thus neither the presence of the transport current in the measurements of the SdH effect nor the absence of current in the dHvA effect alters any phase coherence. On the other hand, SdH effect in the quantum vortex slush state may be affected by moving vortices due to applying the transport current. It may disturb such coherency of the vortices and quasiparticles. Non-observation of stronger oscillation amplitude damping in the dHvA effect with basically no transport current demonstrates the influence of the moving vortices by the current in the quantum vortex slush state.

Besides applying transport current, the effect of moving vortices on the damping of the dHvA oscillations has been seen in the superconducting state of 2H-NbSe2.steep  The damping of the oscillations depended on the history of reciprocal partial sweeps of the external magnetic field in the hysteretic region where the pinning strength was changing. For explaining the observations, Maniv et al. have suggested that the motion of vortices, depending on the pinning strength, influences the magnitude of the damping of the oscillations.maniv1

In order to see the difference of the damping in the quantum vortex slush and TVL regions, we tried to compare the SdH oscillations at higher temperatures. Figure 4 shows the SdH oscillations at higher temperatures in the sample #3. The SdH oscillations in the vortex state are clearly seen down to about 4.5 T at 0.43 K. The sample #3 seems to have better quality to see the SdH oscillations in lower magnetic field than that in the sample #2 presented in Fig. 1.

The magnetic field dependence of the observed SdH oscillation amplitude scaled by $`A_{\mathrm{LK}}^{2\mathrm{D}}`$ in the normal state is shown in Fig. 5. The value of $`(\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma /\sigma _\mathrm{n})/A_{\mathrm{LK}}^{2\mathrm{D}}`$ corresponds to the additional damping in the vortex state. The additional damping starts smoothly around $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ 7 T. The magnitude of the additional damping becomes larger in higher temperatures near $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$. It is naturally understood by the fluctuations. The lower inset shows calculations of the additional damping factor $`R_{\mathrm{SC}}`$ proposed by Ito et al.ito  and Clayton et al.clayton  The fluctuation parameter $`\alpha `$ is expected to take larger value in higher temperature. This has been actually confirmed in the dHvA experiments on the same material by Clayton et al.clayton  The $`\alpha `$ value has changed almost continuously from 0.13 at 0.03 K to 0.32 (meV)2 at 0.44 K. It is noted that the $`R_{\mathrm{SC}}`$ curves calculated with $`\alpha `$ or corresponding temperature are continuously shifting to smaller value, and do not cross each other. The present SdH oscillation damping near $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ is in agreement with the theoretical calculations. But the oscillation amplitude at 0.43 K shows stronger additional damping in low magnetic field than others measured at high temperature. This stronger damping observed at 0.43 K is considered to be due to the moving vortices in the quantum vortex slush state as discussed above.

It is expected that the similar stronger damping may appear below about 5.5, and 5 T at 0.76 and 0.88 K, respectively, where the boundary between the quantum vortex slush and the thermal vortex liquid regions is located.sasaki2  This boundary can be seen in the schematic vortex phase diagram in the low temperature regionsasaki2  shown in the upper left inset of Fig. 5. In the diagram, N is the normal, S the vortex solid, VS and TVL the quantum vortex slush and thermal vortex liquid states, respectively. The SdH oscillation amplitude at 0.76 and 0.88 K, however, does not show the clear stronger damping down to the lowest magnetic field where the SdH oscillations can be detected at those temperatures. It means that the magnetic fields where the SdH oscillations are observed are mostly still in the TVL region. Then the magnetic field dependence of the damping seems to follow the damping by the thermal fluctuations with temperature. This result suggests that the expected stronger damping may appear at lower magnetic fields.

In order to confirm the proposed model on the stronger damping in the SdH oscillations in the quantum vortex slush state, it is necessary to show the clear relation between the stronger damping and the vortex phase diagram. More precise measurements at lower magnetic fields in better quality sample are required in future. The transport current density dependence of the SdH oscillation amplitude is also important to measure in the quantum vortex slush state because the non-linear behavior in the resistivity has been observed. These experiments are in progress.

## IV Summary

We observed the SdH oscillations on the flux flow resistivity in the vortex state of the Q2D organic superconductor $`\kappa `$-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2. The additional damping of the SdH oscillation amplitude near $`H_{\mathrm{c2}}`$ is well described by the model on the superconducting (vortex) fluctuations as well as those observed in the dHvA effect. In only the SdH effect, the stronger damping appears in the quantum vortex slush region. The stronger damping may reflect the perturbation of a phase coherence of vortices and quasiparticles in the quantum vortex slush state with the short-range order of vortices due to moving those by the transport current.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors thank K. Kishigi, T. Maniv, T. Nishizaki for stimulating discussions. A part of this work was performed at the High Field Laboratory for Superconducting Materials, IMR, Tohoku University. This work was partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture of Japan.