Atomic Quantum Simulation of Lattice Gauge-Higgs Model: Higgs Couplings and Emergence of Exact Local Gauge Symmetry

Abstract: Recently, the possibility of quantum simulation of dynamical gauge fields was pointed out by using a system of cold atoms trapped on each link in an optical lattice. However, to implement exact local gauge invariance, fine-tuning the interaction parameters among atoms is necessary. In the present paper, we study the effect of violation of the U(1) local gauge invariance by relaxing the fine-tuning of the parameters and showing that a wide variety of cold atoms is still to be a faithful quantum simulator for a U(1) gauge-Higgs model containing a Higgs field sitting on sites. Clarification of the dynamics of this gauge-Higgs model sheds some lights upon various unsolved problems including the inflation process of the early universe. We study the phase structure of this model by Monte Carlo simulation, and also discuss the atomic characteristics of the Higgs phase in each simulator.