We analyze Dirac spectra of two-dimensional QCD like theories both in the continuum and on the lattice and classify them according to random matrix theories sharing the same global symmetries. The classification is different from QCD in four dimensio
ns because the anti-unitary symmetries do not commute with $gamma_5$. Therefore in a chiral basis, the number of degrees of freedom per matrix element are not given by the Dyson index. Our predictions are confirmed by Dirac spectra from quenched lattice simulations for QCD with two or three colors with quarks in the fundamental representation as well as in the adjoint representation. The universality class of the spectra depends on the parity of the number of lattice points in each direction. Our results show an agreement with random matrix theory that is qualitatively similar to the agreement found for QCD in four dimensions. We discuss the implications for the Mermin-Wagner-Coleman theorem and put our results in the context of two-dimensional disordered systems.
In the last few years, the supersymmetry method was generalized to real-symmetric, Hermitean, and Hermitean self-dual random matrices drawn from ensembles invariant under the orthogonal, unitary, and unitary symplectic group, respectively. We extend
this supersymmetry approach to chiral random matrix theory invariant under the three chiral unitary groups in a unifying way. Thereby we generalize a projection formula providing a direct link and, hence, a `short cut between the probability density in ordinary space and the one in superspace. We emphasize that this point was one of the main problems and critiques of the supersymmetry method since only implicit dualities between ordinary and superspace were known before. As examples we apply this approach to the calculation of the supersymmetric analogue of a Lorentzian (Cauchy) ensemble and an ensemble with a quartic potential. Moreover we consider the partially quenched partition function of the three chiral Gaussian ensembles corresponding to four-dimensional continuum QCD. We identify a natural splitting of the chiral Lagrangian in its lowest order into a part of the physical mesons and a part associated to source terms generating the observables, e.g. the level density of the Dirac operator.
At nonzero lattice spacing the QCD partition function with Wilson quarks undergoes either a second order phase transition to the Aoki phase for decreasing quark mass or shows a first order jump when the quark mass changes sign. We discuss these phase
transitions in terms of Wilson Dirac spectra and show that the first order scenario can only occur in the presence of dynamical quarks while in the quenched case we can only have a transition to the Aoki phase. The exact microscopic spectral density of the non-Hermitian Wilson Dirac operator with dynamical quarks is discussed as well. We conclude with some remarks on discretization effects for the overlap Dirac operator.
