{
  "abstract": "We find a striking departure from simple electrostatics in a family of two-dimensional lattice models whose effective description takes the form of an emergent electromagnetism: a high-order multipolar charge configuration can induce an electric field characteristic of a \\textit{lower-}order multipole. Studying the archetypical hardcore dimer and U(1) spin-1/2 link models, we trace this to a breakdown of the superposition principle: for dense charge configurations, there can be a nonlinear suppression, or even enhancement, of the far field compared to the linear expectation. Our work establishes that microscopic lattice-scale constraints in models for emergent electromagnetism can change the far-field behaviour to differ from often utilized long-wavelength descriptions in standard effective continuum models.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.12063",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Tom Ben-Ami"
    },
    {
      "name": "Markus Heyl"
    },
    {
      "name": "Roderich Moessner"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8rq47z8zwnzdt.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.12063",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "8rq47z8zwnzdt",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12063",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.soft"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.stat-mech"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3104|Advanced Condensed Matter Physics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7212813591",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.12063",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-10",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8rq47z8zwnzdt.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:07Z",
      "native_id": "2609.12063",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12063"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.soft",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.stat-mech",
      "subfield": "statistical-nonlinear"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Breakdown of Multipole Expansion in Emergent Electromagnetism",
  "title_text": "Breakdown of Multipole Expansion in Emergent Electromagnetism",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:21:07Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/8rq47z8zwnzdt",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}