Adjoint sources in lattice gauge theory

Variance reduction techniques for the evaluation of Wilson loops in lattice gauge theory are analysed. The method is extended to Wilson loops in the adjoint representation. Variational methods are also applied to adjoint sources. The combination of these techniques allows the potential V(R) between two static adjoint sources to be determined in SU(2) gauge theory. One isolated static adjoint source is also studied and the energy and distribution of the gluon field of this “glue-lump” is obtained. This is relevant to the saturation of the adjoint potential V(R) at large R.     

The free energy of lattice gauge theories at large β

An upper and a lower bound for the free energy density of a lattice gauge teory with compact gauge group are derived, valid for all values of β. For large β the first two terms of the asymptotic expansions of these bounds coincide, thus determining the corresponding terms of the free energy density. Moreover the gauge groups U(N) and SU(N) are treated explicitly.     

U(1) gauge theory on a torus

U(1) gauge theory with the Villain action on a cubic lattice approximation of three- and four-dimensional torus is considered. As the lattice spacing approaches zero, provided the coupling constant correspondingly approaches zero, the naturally chosen correlation functions converge to the correlation functions of theR-gauge electrodynamics on three- and four-dimensional torus. When the torus radius tends to infinity these correlation functions converge to the correlation functions of theR-gauge Euclidean electrodynamics.Supported by the Russian Foundation of Fundamental Researches under Grant 93-011-147     

Strong-coupling planar diagrams,random surfaces,and the large-N phase transition in U(N) lattice gauge theories

The strong-coupling expansion of U(N) gauge theory on a D-dimensional lattice is reformulated in the limit N → ∞ through a set of diagrammatic rules directly for the free energy and Wilson loops. The strong-coupling planar diagrams are interpreted as surfaces embedded in the lattice. The large-N phase transition is related to the entropy of these surfaces. It is shown that the strong-coupling phase of the U(∞) gauge theory terminates with a phase transition of Gross-Witten type only in 2 and 3 dimensions. When D⩾4 the large-N singularity takes place in a metastable phase because of an earlier first-order transition to the weak-coupling phase of the theory.     

Nonequilibrium energy of Rayleigh waves in half-limited crystals with hot electrons close to the defect surface

Nonequilibrium energies of surface (Rayleigh) lattice oscillations in half-limited crystals with static defects and a two-dimensional layer of hot Fermi and Boltzmann electrons close to the stress free surface were calculated. Substances with electrons heated by an external field retaining their intrinsic temperature for a certain time, T _e ? T, where T is the temperature of the lattice, were considered. As shown earlier, the thermodynamic characteristics of thin films can then be determined by nonequilibrium energy of Rayleigh waves (R-phonons) caused by their interaction with hot electrons. This energy decreases as the widths of the energy spectrum of R-phonons increase. In this work, the earlier calculated spectrum widths are used. These widths are caused by the scattering of R-phonons by electrons and static defects close to the surface (point and extended surface defects, edge dislocations perpendicular to the surface and emerging to it, and random lattice grooves in the lattice plane). In all the calculations, the Keldysh diagram technique transformed for half-limited media was used.     

The static potential at large N

In a partial reduced Eguchi-Kawai model with temporal gauge fixing the large N static potential V(R) is determined for R ⩽ 5 and the string tension σ is extracted. Assuming asymptotic scaling, for the continuum value of the deconfinement temperature 0.60±0.13 is found in units of T_c/√σ. This is the first quantitative confirmation that large N is a goodapproximation to N = 3 (where T_c/√σ = 0.61).     

The quark-antiquark potential of SU(2) lattice gauge theory in 2+1 dimensions

Within the framework of a hamiltonian formulation of SU($\text{N}$) lattice gauge theory in two spatial dimensions we develop a weak coupling expansion in the static quark-antiquark sector. For SU(2) the quark-antiquark potential is calculated to fourth order. Moreover we extend the former calculation of the energy gap in the gauge invariant sector to general SU($\text{N}$) and extrapolate to the infinite lattice limit from large lattices. Due to the infrared divergence of the weak coupling expansion on infinite lattices the quark-antiquark potential contains a term diverging logarithmically with the lattice expansion. Hence the expansion has to be interpreted as a pseudo-perturbation expansion in the sense of Symanzik.     

Gaussian fluctuations to U(N) and SU(N) lattice gauge theories in the mean field approximation

The mean field can be considered as a classical solution of an appropriately reformulated version of lattice gauge theories. Axial gauge fixing renders it stable. The quadratic forms for the fluctuations in the gaussian approximation are analyzed. The gaussian correction to the mean field free energy is expressed for all U(N) and SU(N) in terms of structure functions that are explicitly calculated for U(N), SU(∞, and SU(∞) numerical calculations are performed for the phase transition point, its latent heat, and some correlation lengths that are characteristic for this kind of mean field approach.     

Random surfaces with rigidity at largeD

A model of two-dimensional random surfaces embedded in aD-dimensional space is investigated in the largeD limit. Its action is that of Nambu-Goto, supplemented by an extrinsic curvature term. The surfaces considered have the topology of a torus. For largeD the (renormalized) effective action is constructed using a Pauli-Villars regularization procedure. Our main concern are finite size effects. No nonperturbative modification arises for the Coulomblike term appearing in the effective energy at large distances. The two-point function of the model implies that the fluctuations diverge logarithmically with the size, a behaviour familiar from surface roughening in lattice gauge theories.     

SU(2) string tension,glueball mass and interquark potential by Monte Carlo computations

Monte Carlo simulations of the SU(2) gauge system on a large (16⁴) lattice and with high statistics are performed to determine several quantities of physical interest. Previous evaluations of the ratio between string tension, σ, and scale constant, Λ₀, are confirmed. The mass of the glueball is found to be approximately 3√σ and the potential between static charges at very small separation is measured.     

Variational method in hamiltonian lattice gauge theories

A general expression for the expectation value of the hamiltonian of a d + 1 dimensional lattice gauge theory as a function of the norm of the variational state (that itself has the form of a partition function of a d-dimensional lattice gauge theory) is given. Applications include U(1), SU(2), U(2) and U(N) gauge theories for large N in d = 2 + 1 dimensions. It is also demonstrated that the deconfining phase transition is of first order in every dimension above the critical one, provided it is of first or second order at the critical dimension.     

Series analysis in four-dimensional Zn lattice gauge systems

The strong coupling series for the free energy of four-dimensional Z_n lattice gauge systems are analyzed. The energy per plaquette is displayed as a function of the coupling constant and the nature of the transition(s) is discussed.     

Critical point behavior of the Wilson loop

I note that, at a second-order phase transition in a gauge theory, the static quark-antiquark potential derived from the Wilson loop is proportional to $\text{1}\text{R}$, independently of space-time dimensionality. I present two simple applications of this observation: a definition of the critical exponent η for lattice gauge theories and an argument for gauge theories analogous to the Mermin-Wagner theorem.     

On the connection between spin glasses and gauge field theories

A simple connection between Ising spin glasses and the Z₂ lattice gauge theory, at negative plaquette temperatures, is presented. It is first shown that annealed models give useful lower bounds on the free energy and ground-state energy of spin glasses. However, they have unphysical low temperature properties (e.g. a negative entropy), which are related to a temperature dependence of the frustration. A restricted annealing scheme is presented which remedies this deficiency through the introduction of a pure gauge coupling counterterm. The possible phase diagrams of the lattice gauge system and their relevance to spin glass transitions are discussed.     

Potentials in pure QCD on 324 lattices

A range of properties of pure SU (3) gauge theory are studied numerically on euclidean lattices of 32⁴ points at β values of 6.29, 6.585 and 6.88. Potentials between static pairs of colour charges in the triplet, octet and sextet representations are calculated. The lowest energy (the A_1g) gluonic modes are considered for each of these plus the E_u mode for the triplet case. In the calculations, the use of extended operators on the lattice is examined. The results are assessed for scaling but do not agree adequately with asymptotic behaviour based on the two-loop β-function.     

Holographic description of large N gauge theory

Based on the earlier work [S.-S. Lee, Nucl. Rev. B 832 (2010) 567], we derive a holographic dual for the D-dimensional U(N) lattice gauge theory from a first principle construction. The resulting theory is a lattice field theory of closed loops, dubbed as lattice loop field theory which is defined on a (D+1)-dimensional space. The lattice loop field theory is well defined non-perturbatively, and it becomes weakly coupled and local in the large N limit with a large ?t Hooft coupling.     

Kosterlitz-Thouless transition for the finite-temperatured=2+1,U(1) Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory

We prove that in thed=2+1,U(1) Hamiltonian (continuous time) lattice gauge theory the confining potential between two static external charges grows logarithmically with their distance, at sufficiently high temperatures. As it is known that for zero or low temperatures and large coupling constant the model confines linearly, we have therefore established the existence of a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. Our results are based on a Mermin-Wagner type of argument combined with correlation inequalities and known results for the two-dimensional (spin) Villain model.     

High precision mean-field results for lattice gauge theories: with special attention paid to the gauge dependence of mean-field perturbation theory to finite order

We do mean-field perturbation theory for U(1) lattice gauge theory in the axial gauge, and evaluate corrections from fluctuations up to fourth order for the free energy and plaquette energy. Comparing with similar results previously obtained in the Feynman gauge we find, to those orders studied, a gauge dependence of the size of the first correction term neglected with one exception. This gauge dependence decreases rapidly as the order of the approximation is increased. To any finite order, results in axial gauge are better approximations than results in the Feynman gauge. We speculate why. Assuming it to be generally true, we evaluate the first correction beyond the one-loop mean-field approximation to the free energy of SU(2) gauge theory with Wilson action in the axial gauge. This correction brings the mean-field result very close to Monte Carlo results for β > 1.6. It also makes the mean-field result identical, within a narrow margin, to ressumed strong coupling results in the interval 1.6 < β < 2.4, thus showing the absence of a phase transition.For both groups studied, we find that the asymptotic series of mean-field perturbation theory give much better approximations than do ordinary weak coupling series.     

A connection between ν-dimensional Yang-Mills theory and (ν−1)-dimensional,non-linear σ-models

We study non-linear σ-models and Yang-Mills theory. Yang-Mills theory on the ν-dimensional lattice ? ^v can be obtained as an integral of a product over all values of one coordinate of non-linear σ-models on ? ^v?1 in random external gauge fields. This exhibits two possible mechanisms for confinement of static quarks one of which is that clustering of certain two-point functions of those σ-models implies confinement of static quarks in the corresponding Yang-Mills theory. Clustering is proven for all one-dimensional σ-models, for theU(n) ×U(n) σ-models,n=1, 2, 3, ..., in two dimensions, and for the SU(2) × SU(2) σ-models for a large range of couplingsg ² ? O(ν). Arguments pertinent to the construction of the continuum limit are discussed. A representation of the expectation of Wilson loops in terms of expectations of random surfaces bounded by the loops is derived when the gauge group is SU(2),U(n) or O(n),n=1, 2, 3, ..., and connections to the theory of dual strings are sketched.