Phase Structure of Confining Theories on R^3 x S^1

TL;DR

This paper explores the phase structure of confining theories on R^3 x S^1, revealing how confinement persists at small circle sizes and analyzing phase diagrams for specific QCD-like models.

Contribution

It presents new insights into the phase diagrams of adjoint QCD and double-trace deformation theories, connecting large and small circle confinement regimes.

Findings

Confined phase exists at small S^1 circumference in certain QCD-like theories.

Connection established between large-L and small-L confined regions in SU(3) adjoint QCD.

Identified conflicts between Higgs and small-L confinement phases in SU(2) double-trace deformation theory.

Abstract

Recent work on QCD-like theories on R^3 x S^1 has revealed that a confined phase can exist when the circumference L of S^1 is sufficiently small. Adjoint QCD and double-trace deformation theories with certain conditions are such theories, and we present some new results for their phase diagrams. First we show the connection between the large-L and small-L confined regions in the phase diagram of SU(3) adjoint QCD using Polyakov-Nambu-Jona Lasinio models. Then we consider an SU(2) double-trace deformation theory with adjoint scalars and study conflicts between the Higgs and small-L confined phase.