Entanglement asymmetry in gauge theories: Chiral anomaly in the finite temperature massless Schwinger model
Abstract
Entanglement asymmetry has emerged in recent years as a practical quantity to study phases of matter. We present the first study of entanglement asymmetry in gauge theories by considering the chiral anomaly of the analytically solvable massless Schwinger model at both zero and finite temperatures. At zero temperature, we find the asymmetry exhibits logarithmic growth with system size. At finite temperature, we show that it is parametrically more sensitive to chiral symmetry breaking than the corresponding local order parameter: While the chiral condensate decays exponentially, the asymmetry decreases only logarithmically. This establishes the entanglement asymmetry as a promising tool to probe (finite-temperature) phase transitions in gauge theories.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions
Quantum many-body systems
Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 9
- Publication date
- 27 March 2026
- Language
- EN