No Arabic abstract
We study analytically and numerically the three-dimensional U(1) lattice gauge theory at finite temperature in the dual formulation. For an appropriate disorder operator, we obtain the renormalization group equations describing the critical behavior of the model in the vicinity of the deconfinement phase transition. These equations are used to check the validity of the Svetitsky-Yaffe conjecture regarding the critical behavior of the lattice U(1) model. Furthermore, we perform numerical simulations of the model for $N_t = 1, 2, 4, 8$ and compute, by a cluster algorithm, the dual correlation functions and the corresponding second moment correlation length. In this way we locate the position of the critical point and calculate critical indices.
We examine the axial U(1) symmetry near and above the finite temperature phase transition in two-flavor QCD using lattice QCD simulations. Although the axial U(1) symmetry is always violated by quantization, (i.e.) the chiral anomaly, the correlation functions may manifest effective restoration of the symmetry in the high temperature phase. We explicitly study this possibility by calculating the meson correlators as well as the Dirac operator spectral density near the critical point. Our numerical simulations are performed on a $16^3times 8$ lattice with two flavors of dynamical quarks represented by the overlap fermion formalism. Chiral symmetry and its violation due to the axial anomaly is manifestly realized with this formulation, which is a prerequisite for the study of the effective restoration of the axial U(1) symmetry. In order to avoid discontinuity in the gauge configuration space, which occurs for the exactly chiral lattice fermions, the simulation is confined in a fixed topological sector. It induces finite volume effect, which is well described by a formula based on the Fourier transform from the $theta$-vacua. We confirm this formula at finite temperature by calculating the topological susceptibility in the quenched theory. Our two flavor simulations show degeneracy of the meson correlators and a gap in the Dirac operator spectral density, which implies that the axial U(1) symmetry is effectively restored in the chirally symmetric phase.
We describe how the strings, which are classical solutions of the continuum three-dimensional U(1)+Higgs theory, can be studied on the lattice. The effect of an external magnetic field is also discussed and the first results on the string free energy are presented. It is shown that the string free energy can be used as an order parameter when the scalar self-coupling is large and the transition is continuous.
We present a tensor formulation for free compact electrodynamics in three Euclidean dimensions and use this formulation to construct a quantum Hamiltonian in the continuous-time limit. Gauge-invariance is maintained at every step and the resulting Hamiltonian can be written as a rotor model. The energy eigenvalues for this Hamiltonian are computed using the tensor formulation, and compared with perturbation theory. We find good agreement between the calculations demonstrating a smooth passage from the statistical lattice Lagrangian description to the quantum Hamiltonian description.
We present and discuss the results of a Monte-Carlo simulation of the phase transition in pure compact U(1) lattice gauge theory with Wilson action on a hypercubic lattice with periodic boundary conditions. The statistics are large enough to make a thorough analysis of the size dependence of the gap. In particular we find a non-zero latent heat in the infinite volume limit. We also find that the critical exponents $ u$ and $alpha$ are consistent with the hyperscaling relation but confirm that the critical behavior is different from a conventional first-order transition.
We investigate SU(2) lattice gauge theory in four dimensions in the maximally abelian projection. Studying the effects on different lattice sizes we show that the deconfinement transition of the fields and the percolation transition of the monopole currents in the three space dimensions are precisely related. To arrive properly at this result the uses of a mathematically sound characterization of the occurring networks of monopole currents and of an appropriate method of gauge fixing turn out to be crucial. In addition we investigate detailed features of the monopole structure in time direction.