International Journal of Modern Physics A

We review the current knowledge about the theoretical foundations of the effective string theory for confining flux tubes and the comparison of the predictions to pure gauge lattice data. A concise presentation of the effective string theory is provided, incorporating recent developments. We summarize the predictions for the spectrum and the profile/width of the flux tube and their comparison to lattice data. The review closes with a short summary of open questions for future research.

In this review we summarize the ongoing effort to study extra-dimensional gauge theories with lattice simulations. In these models the Higgs field is identified with extra-dimensional components of the gauge field. The Higgs potential is generated by quantum corrections and is protected from divergences by the higher dimensional gauge symmetry. Dimensional reduction to four dimensions can occur through compactification or localization. Gauge-Higgs unification models are often studied using perturbation theory. Numerical lattice simulations are used to go beyond these perturbative expectations and to include nonperturbative effects. We describe the known perturbative predictions and their fate in the strongly-coupled regime for various extra-dimensional models.

We review recent progress in the lattice investigations of near-conformal non-Abelian gauge theories relevant for dynamical symmetry breaking and model building of composite Higgs models. The emphasis is placed on the mass spectrum and the running renormalized coupling. The role of a light composite scalar isosinglet particle as a composite Higgs particle is highlighted.

We review models of new physics in which dark matter arises as a composite bound state from a confining strongly-coupled non-Abelian gauge theory. We discuss several qualitatively distinct classes of composite candidates, including dark mesons, dark baryons, and dark glueballs. We highlight some of the promising strategies for direct detection, especially through dark moments, using the symmetries and properties of the composite description to identify the operators that dominate the interactions of dark matter with matter, as well as dark matter self-interactions. We briefly discuss the implications of these theories at colliders, especially the (potentially novel) phenomenology of dark mesons in various regimes of the models. Throughout the review, we highlight the use of lattice calculations in the study of these strongly-coupled theories, to obtain precise quantitative predictions and new insights into the dynamics.

We discuss the motivations, difficulties and progress in the study of supersymmetric lattice gauge theories focusing in particular on ${𝒩}=1$ and ${𝒩}=4$ super-Yang–Mills in four dimensions. Brief reviews of the corresponding lattice formalisms are given and current results are presented and discussed. We conclude with a summary of the main aspects of current work and prospects for the future.

The gauge/gravity duality provides us with nonperturbative formulation of superstring/M-theory. Although inputs from gauge theory side are crucial for answering many deep questions associated with quantum gravitational aspects of superstring/M-theory, many of the important problems have evaded analytic approaches. For them, lattice gauge theory is the only hope at this moment. In this review I give a list of such problems, putting emphasis on problems within reach in a five-year span, including both Euclidean and real-time simulations.

Quantum field theories (QFTs) at finite densities of matter generically involve complex actions. Standard Monte Carlo simulations based upon importance sampling, which have been producing quantitative first principle results in particle physics for almost forty years, cannot be applied in this case. Various strategies to overcome this so-called sign problem or complex action problem were proposed during the last thirty years. We here review the sign problem in lattice field theories, focusing on two more recent methods: dualization to worldline type of representations and the density-of-states approach.

We review the application of lattice QCD techniques, most notably the Hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) simulations, to first-principle study of tight-binding models of crystalline solids with strong inter-electron interactions. After providing a basic introduction into the HMC algorithm as applied to condensed matter systems, we review HMC simulations of graphene, which in the recent years have helped to understand the semimetal behavior of clean suspended graphene at the quantitative level. We also briefly summarize other novel physical results obtained in these simulations. Then we comment on the applicability of hybrid Monte Carlo to topological insulators and Dirac and Weyl semimetals and highlight some of the relevant open physical problems. Finally, we also touch upon the lattice strong-coupling expansion technique as applied to condensed matter systems.