On the intrinsic width of the chromoelectric flux tube in finite temperature LGTs

TL;DR

This paper introduces three lattice operators to measure the intrinsic width of the chromoelectric flux tube in finite temperature lattice gauge theories, finding it diverges near the deconfinement transition.

Contribution

It proposes and tests three novel lattice operators for measuring flux tube width, using effective 2D models and S-matrix techniques near the deconfinement transition.

Findings

Intrinsic width relates to string tension as =/2(T)

Intrinsic width diverges approaching deconfinement transition

All three operators yield consistent measurements

Abstract

We propose three different lattice operators to measure the intrinsic width \xi_I of the chromoelectric flux tube in pure lattice gauge theories. In order to test these proposals we evaluate them for SU(2) and Ising LGTs in (2+1) dimensions in the vicinity of the deconfinement transition. Using dimensional reduction, we could perform the calculation in the effective 2d spin model using standard S-matrix techniques. We consistently found the same result for the three lattice operators. This result can be expressed in terms of the finite temperature string tension as follows \xi_I=\frac{T}{2\sigma(T)} and implies that the intrinsic width of the flux tube diverges as the deconfinement transition is approached.