The gluon propagator close to criticality

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the gluon propagator in pure Yang-Mills theory reflects the deconfinement phase transition, using lattice simulations in different dimensions and gauge conditions to understand its critical behavior.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the gluon propagator's behavior near the phase transition in SU(2) and SU(3), highlighting its sensitivity to the transition's order.

Findings

Gluon propagator shows critical behavior near the phase transition.

Lattice simulations confirm the sensitivity of the propagator to the transition.

Differences observed between SU(2) and SU(3) indicate transition order dependence.

Abstract

The deconfinement phase transition of pure Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature is reflected in the behavior of gauge-fixed gluonic correlation functions. This is one of many examples of how physical information can be extracted from gauge-dependent correlations which is not always obvious. Here, we study the behavior of the Landau-gauge gluon propagator of pure SU(2) across the phase transition in 2+1 and 3+1 dimensions in order to assess to what extend the corresponding critical behavior is reflected in these correlations. We discuss why it should emerge from a continuum perspective and test our expectations in lattice simulations. A comparison with SU(3) furthermore reveals quite clear indications for a sensitivity of the gluon propagator to the order of the transition.