Fig. 5: String breaking.
From: Visualizing dynamics of charges and strings in (2 + 1)D lattice gauge theories
a, Schematics for pair creation from vacuum fluctuation and string breaking. b, Difference in the charge excitation values in the presence and absence of the string ⟨Av⟩string − ⟨Av⟩vacuum, for λ ∈ {0, 0.25, 0.50} at hE = 1.4 and t = 2.7, with dt = 0.3. c, Probability of a vertex excitation P(Av) on three distinct vertices A1 (gold), A2 (green) and Avac (black) for λ ∈ {0, 0.25, 0.50} and hE = 1.4. The grey ‘decoherence-limited’ region is defined by the average of P(Av) over all vertices having evolved the initial state with the X string for λ = 0, hE = 1.4. d, Dependence of P(Av) on hE, acquired at t = 2 (dt = 0.2), for λ = 0 (pluses), λ = 0.25 (crosses) and λ = 0.50 (pentagons).