Schwinger Model’s Quantum Screening Beats Confinement in AdS 2 Space

Sriram Bharadwaj and Jack Isen, both of the University of California, Los Angeles, along with Zhong-Bo Kang, report a result in two-dimensional quantum electrodynamics (QED2) modeled on anti-de Sitter (AdS2) space: the static potential between charged particles remains finite even at infinite separation. This finding establishes that the theory exhibits screening, consistent with the explicit breaking of the electric one-form symmetry by the dynamical fermions, and resolves a confining/screening ambiguity in earlier treatments. Unlike flat space, the researchers found that position-dependent probe self-energies are not constant, necessitating their subtraction to accurately determine the static potential. This…