Phases of SU(2) gauge theory with multiple adjoint Higgs fields in 2+1 dimensions

Understand

A recent work (arXiv:1811.04930) proposed a SU(2) gauge theory for optimal doping criticality in the cuprate superconductors.

• The theory contains $N_h$ Higgs fields transforming under the adjoint representation of SU(2), with $N_h=1$ for the electron-doped cuprates, and $N_h=4$ for the hole-doped cuprates.
• We investigate the strong-coupling dynamics of this gauge theory, while ignoring the coupling to fermionic excitations.
• We integrate out the SU(2) gauge field in a strong-coupling expansion, and obtain a lattice action for the Higgs fields alone.