Theta dependence of the deconfinement temperature in Yang-Mills theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the deconfinement temperature in SU(3) pure gauge theory varies with the topological theta term, using lattice simulations and analytic continuation, and extends the analysis to large N limits.

Contribution

It provides the first quantitative determination of the theta dependence of the deconfinement temperature in SU(3) gauge theory and compares it with large N predictions.

Findings

Decreases in deconfinement temperature with increasing theta.

Agreement between lattice results and large N estimates.

Methodology combining lattice simulations at imaginary theta with analytic continuation.

Abstract

We determine the theta dependence of the deconfinement temperature of SU(3) pure gauge theory, finding that it decreases in presence of a topological theta term. We do that by performing lattice simulations at imaginary theta, then exploiting analytic continuation. We also give an estimate of such dependence in the limit of a large number of colors N, and compare it with our numerical results.