Testing two versions of lattice gauge theory: Creutz ratios inU(1)3

In our simplicial version of lattice gauge theory, we approximate Euclidean path integrals by tiling space-time with simplexes and by linearly interpolating the fields throughout each simplex from their values at the vertices. We compare this method with Wilson's lattice gauge theory forU(1) in three dimensions. As a standard of comparison, we compute the exact values of Creutz ratios of Wilson loops in the continuum theory. Monte Carlo computations using the simplicial method give Creutz ratios within a few percent of the exact values for reasonably sized loop atβ=1, 2, and 10. Similar computations using Wilson's method give ratios that typically differ from the exact values by factors of 2 or more for 1⩽β⩽3.5 and that have the wrongβ dependence. The better accuracy of the simplicial method is due to its use of the action and domain of integration of the exact theory, unaltered apart from the granularity of the simplicial lattice. We also present data on the action density and the mass gap. Research supported by the U.S. epartment of Energy under grant DE-FG04-84ER40166.