Probing Deconfinement with Polyakov Loop Susceptibilities

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that ratios of Polyakov loop susceptibilities serve as robust, renormalization-independent indicators of the deconfinement transition in SU(3) lattice gauge theory, showing characteristic discontinuities at the critical temperature.

Contribution

It introduces the use of susceptibility ratios of the Polyakov loop as effective probes for deconfinement, independent of renormalization and weakly dependent on system size.

Findings

Susceptibility ratios are nearly temperature independent away from the transition.

Ratios exhibit a clear discontinuity at the deconfinement temperature.

Results are consistent with the Z(3) symmetry of the Yang-Mills theory.

Abstract

The susceptibilities of the real and imaginary parts, as well as of the modulus of the Polyakov loop, are computed in SU(3) lattice gauge theory. We show that the ratios of these susceptibilities are excellent probes of the deconfinement transition, independent of the renormalization of the Polyakov loop and only weakly dependent on the system size. The ratios are almost temperature independent above and below the transition and exhibit a discontinuity at the transition temperature. This characteristic behavior can be understood in terms of the global Z(3) symmetry of the Yang-Mills Lagrangian and the general properties of the Polyakov loop probability distribution.