Dynamical generation of a Coulomb phase in the mean-field approach to Z(N) lattice gauge theories

The phase diagram of Z(N) lattice gauge theories is examined in the mean-field approach. It is shown how large non-perturbative fluctuations around the mean-field may naturally occur in these theories. When this happens, a massless phase which is absent in the mean-field approximation is dynamically generated. An order parameter which characterizes the Coulomb to Higgs phase transition is introduced. The predictions for the values of the critical coupling for this transition are in excellent agreement with the Monte Carlo data in four dimensions.     

Critical bubbles and fluctuations at the electroweak phase transition

We discuss the critical bubbles of the electroweak phase transition using an effective high-temperature 3-dimensional action for the Higgs field ϕ. The separate integration of gauge and Goldstone boson degrees of freedom is conveniently described in the 't Hooft-Feynman covariant background gauge. The effective dimensionless gauge coupling g3 (T) z in the broken phase is well behaved throughout the phase transition. However, the behavior of the one-loop Z(ϕ) factors of the Higgs and gauge kinetic terms signalizes the breakdown of the derivative expansion and of the perturbative expansion for a range of small ϕ values increasing with the Higgs mass m_H Taking a functional S_z [ϕ] with constant Z(ϕ) = z instead of the full non-local effective action in some neighborhood of the saddle point we are calculating the critical bubbles for several temperatures. The fluctuation determinant is calculated to high accuracy using a variant of the heat kernel method. It gives a strong suppression of the transition rate compared to previous estimates.     

Determination of the phase structure of the four-dimensional coupled gauge-Higgs Potts model

Using Monte Carlo simulations the phase structure of the four-dimensional N-state gauge Potts model coupled to Higgs fields is determined. A three-phase diagram is established. In the Z(2) case, a first and a second-order transition lines are present. For Z(5) and Z(10) only first-order transition lines appear. The results are consistent with previous mean field predictions.     

U(3) four-dimensional lattice gauge theory and Monte Carlo calculations

Monte Carlo results for the pure U(3) lattice gauge theory on a 6⁴ lattice are reported. Wilson loops and the string tension are presented. The first-order phase transition in U(3) is reflected quite clearly in a discontinuity in the string tension at β = β_c. The U(1) factor of U(3) is extracted using the determinant of the Wilson loops. As expected, the U(1) component appears to deconfine at the phase transition..     

Monte Carlo study of a lattice gauge theory with a radially varied Higgs field

The phase structure of a gauge-scalar (Higgs) field system is studied by Monte Carlo simulations without freezing the radial mode of the scalar field. We consider Z₂ lattice gauge theory coupled to a Higgs field which is approximated by a discrete real one. Most of our analysis is done on a 4⁴ lattice. We find that the phase diagram of our model consists of three distinct phases, Higgs and confined regions being divided by a phase boundary. This phase structure forms a contrast with that presented in the model with a fixed-length Higgs field.     

Monte Carlo studies of wilson loops in four-dimensional U(2) gauge theory

Wilson loops are calculated using Monte Carlo simulations for pure U(2) gauge theory on a 6⁴ lattice. The loops appear to contain an area law piece in both the high and low temperature regions. The string tension is discontinuous at β = β_c, where β_c is the critical inverse temperature. This suggests that the first-order phase transition in U(2) gauge theory is not a deconfining phase transition. The determinant of the Wilson loop, however, extracts the U(1) part of the theory and appears to lose the area law at low temperature.     

Phase structure of a U(1) lattice gauge theory with dual gauge fields

We introduce a U(1) lattice gauge theory with dual gauge fields and study its phase structure. This system is partly motivated by unconventional superconductors like extended s-wave and d  -wave superconductors in the strongly-correlated electron systems and also studies of the t–J$t\text{–}J$ model in the slave-particle representation. In this theory, the “Cooper-pair” (or RVB spinon-pair) field is put on links of a cubic lattice due to strong on-site repulsion between original electrons in contrast to the ordinary s  -wave pair field on sites. This pair field behaves as a gauge field dual to the U(1) gauge field coupled with the hopping of electrons or quasi-particles of the t–J$t\text{–}J$ model, holons and spinons. By Monte Carlo simulations we study this lattice gauge model and find a first-order phase transition from the normal state to the Higgs (superconducting) phase. Each gauge field works as a Higgs field for the other gauge field. This mechanism requires no scalar fields in contrast to the ordinary Higgs mechanism. An explicit microscopic model is introduced, the low-energy effective theory of which is viewed as a special case of the present model.     

Phase transition analysis in Z2 and U(1) lattice gauge theories

The transition region of Z₂ lattice gauge theory is investigated by inverting the strong coupling series of the average plaquette energy E_P(J). We find a clear evidence for a first-order transition and the existence of a metastable phase. In the U(1) case we confirm a second-order phase transition even if there is a little discrepancy on the critical point position as indicated by Monte Carlo simulations.     

Modified action glueballs

The mass of the 0⁺ glueball in 4-dimensional lattice gauge theory with a mixed SU(2)-SO(3) action is obtained via Monte Carlo. We work in a region far from the critical end point in the phase diagram, with an action partly motivated by renormalization group flows in the Migdal-Kadanoff approximation. A large-N resummation of perturbation theory is used to show that the mass gap scales as predicted by the perturbative renormalization group. Independent of this, our results show that the ratio of the glueball mass to the square root of the string tension, obtained from a previous Monte Carlo, is a renormalization group invariant.     

Monte carlo study of anSU(2) lattice gauge-Higgs theory at finite temperature

AnSU(2) gauge theory coupled to a Higgs field in the fundamental representation is studied at finite temperature by Monte Carlo method. Calculations are done on 8⁴, 8³×4 and 8³×2 lattices with a small Higgs self-coupling constant. In the parameter region we studied both the location and the order of the Higgs transition are found to be insensitive to the system's temperature. As for the deconfining transition at finite temperature, our data suggest that it disappears within the symmetric region as the Higgs bare mass decreases. Results on the Higgs energy density and the gauge energy density are also presented.     

Correlations and static energies in the standard Higgs model

Correlations in the W-boson and Higgs boson channels and the static energy of an external SU(2) doublet charge pair are investigated by Monte Carlo calculations in the SU(2) lattice gauge theory with a scalar Higgs doublet field. The mass ratio m_W/m_H and the shape of the static potential are used to obtain information on the renormalization group trajectories in the three-dimensional coupling constant space. As a function of an appropriately chosen varibale, the measured quantities are, within errors, independent from the scalar self-coupling (λ) in a wide range 0.1 ⩽ λ ⩽ ∝. In the Higgs phase, a lower bound m_W/m_H ⩾ (1.0 ± 0.3) is obtained for the ratio of the Higgs boson mass to the W-boson mass.     

Upper bound estimate for the Higgs mass from the lattice regularized Weinberg-Salam model

There are indications that, as a consequence of the trivality of the scalar φ⁴ theory, the Weinberg-Salam model is massive free field theory. However, considering theWS model as an effective field theory, an upper bound for the Higgs mass can exist. We have studied this phenomenon by simulating the SU(2) gauge Higgs model on a lattice. The results indicate that R_max = m_H/m_W|_max = 9.3 ± 1. However, serious finite size effects make it unfeasible to explore the region m_H ⩽ Λ_cutoff with Monte Carlo simulation.     

Accessing directly the properties of fundamental scalars in the confinement and Higgs phase

The properties of elementary particles are encoded in their respective propagators and interaction vertices. For a SU(2) gauge theory coupled to a doublet of fundamental complex scalars these propagators are determined in both the Higgs phase and the confinement phase and compared to the Yang–Mills case, using lattice gauge theory. Since the propagators are gauge dependent, this is done in the Landau limit of the ’t Hooft gauge, permitting to also determine the ghost propagator. It is found that neither the gauge boson nor the scalar differ qualitatively in the different cases. In particular, the gauge boson acquires a screening mass, and the scalar’s screening mass is larger than the renormalized mass. Only the ghost propagator shows a significant change. Furthermore, indications are found that the consequences of the residual non-perturbative gauge freedom due to Gribov copies could be different in the confinement and the Higgs phase.     

Gauge theory picture of an ordering transition in a dimer model

We study a phase transition in a 3D lattice gauge theory, a "coarse-grained" version of a classical dimer model. Duality arguments indicate that the dimer lattice theory should be dual to a XY model coupled to a gauge field with geometric frustration. The transition between a Coulomb phase with dipolar correlations and a long range ordered columnar phase is understood in terms of a Higgs mechanism. Monte Carlo simulations of the dual model indicate a continuous transition with exponents close but apparently different from those of the 3D XY model. The continuous nature of the transition is confirmed by a flowgram analysis.     

Higgs and W mass on the lattice at strong gauge coupling

At infinite gauge coupling the gauge fields in the fundamental lattice SU(N) Higgs model can be integrated out exactly. In the resulting effective theory of the radial Higgs field we derive a string -like correlation function that represents the leading behavior of the W two-point function at small β. For large N we then compute the W-mass and the Higgs mass. These analytical results are qualitatively similar to what has been found in Monte Carlo simulations of the SU(2) model.     

The phase structure of mixed lattice gauge theories

The mixed compact-non-compact U(1) model is shown to be equivalent to a compact U(1) Higgs model. It is argued that the mixed SO(3)-SU(2) model is dual to an SO(3) gauge theory coupled to a scalar field in the fundamental representation. The degrees of freedom are Z(2) monopoles and charges or, in a dual picture, monopoles and loops. This picture is supported by a Monte Carlo calculation. The implications for the SU(2) transition region are discussed.     

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.     

The phase transition generated by the radial mode of the scalar field in the lattice Z(2) gauge-Higgs model

For the lattice Z(2) gauge-Higgs model with a radially variable scalar field, it is rigorously shown that the first-order phase transition is generated by the radial mode of the scalar field, at least, in the strong gauge-coupling limit β = 0. This phenomena was first observed by Munehisa and Munehisa, using Monte Carlo method and explained by mean field (approximation) method. We prove the statement for a simple case in which the Higgs scalar field takes only 3 values.     

Phase structure and critical behavior of multi-Higgs U(1) lattice gauge theory in three dimensions

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 in the c₂ (gauge coupling)-c₁ (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 c₂<c_2tc=2.4±0.1 with first-order transitions, and the other for c_2tc<c₂ 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.