Topological insulators and the QCD vacuum: the theta parameter as a Berry phase

There is considerable evidence, based on large \(N_c\) chiral dynamics, holographic QCD, and Monte Carlo studies, that the QCD vacuum is permeated by discrete quasivacua separated by domain walls across which the local value of the topological \(\theta\) parameter jumps by \(\pm2\pi\). In the 2-dimensional \(CP^{N-1}\) sigma model, a pointlike charge is a domain wall, and \(\theta\) describes the background electric flux and the polarization of charged pairs in the vacuum. We show that the screening process, and the role of \(\theta\) as an order parameter describing electric polarization, are naturally formulated in terms of Bloch wave eigenstates of the Dirac Hamiltonian in the background gauge field. This formulation is similar to the Berry phase description of electric polarization and quantized charge transport in topological insulators. The Bloch waves are quasiperiodic superpositions of localized Dirac zero modes. They define a Berry connection around the Brillouin zone of the zero mode band which describes the local polarization of vacuum pairs, analogous to its role in topological insulator theory. In 4D Yang-Mills theory, the \(\theta\) domain walls are 2+1-dimensional Chern-Simons membranes. The interpretation of the \(\theta\) parameter as a Berry phase describing the local polarization of brane-antibrane pairs follows from the descent equations of 4D Yang-Mills theory.