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 study the three-dimensional U(1)+Higgs theory (Ginzburg-Landau model) as an effective theory for finite temperature phase transitions from the 1 K scale of superconductivity to the relativistic scales of scalar electrodynamics. The relations between the parameters of the physical theory and the parameters of the 3d effective theory are given. The 3d theory as such is studied with lattice Monte Carlo techniques. The phase diagram, the characteristics of the transition in the first order regime, and scalar and vector correlation lengths are determined. We find that even rather deep in the first order regime, the transition is weaker than indicated by 2-loop perturbation theory. Topological effects caused by the compact formulation are studied, and it is demonstrated that they vanish in the continuum limit. In particular, the photon mass (inverse correlation length) is observed to be zero within statistical errors in the symmetric phase, thus constituting an effective order parameter.
We study the three-dimensional (3D) compact U(1) lattice gauge theory coupled with $N$-flavor Higgs fields by means of the Monte Carlo simulations. This model is relevant to multi-component superconductors, antiferromagnetic spin systems in easy plane, inflational cosmology, etc. It is known that there is no phase transition in the N=1 model. For N=2, we found that the system has a second-order phase transition line $tilde{c}_1(c_2)$ in the $c_2$(gauge coupling)$-c_1$(Higgs coupling) plane, which separates the confinement phase and the Higgs phase. Numerical results suggest that the phase transition belongs to the universality class of the 3D XY model as the previous works by Babaev et al. and Smiseth et al. suggested. For N=3, we found that there exists a critical line similar to that in the N=2 model, but the critical line is separated into two parts; one for $c_2 < c_{2{rm tc}}=2.4pm 0.1$ with first-order transitions, and the other for $ c_{2{rm tc}} < c_2$ with second-order transitions, indicating the existence of a tricritical point. We verified that similar phase diagram appears for the N=4 and N=5 systems. We also studied the case of anistropic Higgs coupling in the N=3 model and found that there appear two second-order phase transitions or a single second-order transition and a crossover depending on the values of the anisotropic Higgs couplings. This result indicates that an enhancement of phase transition occurs when multiple phase transitions coincide at a certain point in the parameter space.
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 investigate the continuum limit of a compact formulation of the lattice U(1) gauge theory in 4 dimensions using a nonperturbative gauge-fixed regularization. We find clear evidence of a continuous phase transition in the pure gauge theory for all values of the gauge coupling (with gauge symmetry restored). When probed with quenched staggered fermions with U(1) charge, the theory clearly has a chiral transition for large gauge couplings. We identify the only possible region in the parameter space where a continuum limit with nonperturbative physics may appear.