Transmutation of a Trans-series: The Gross-Witten-Wadia Phase Transition

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the resurgent properties of a trans-series in the Gross-Witten-Wadia matrix model across a phase transition, revealing how instanton contributions evolve and condense at the critical point using Painlevé equations.

Contribution

It introduces a differential equation approach and Tracy-Widom mapping to study trans-series transmutation at all couplings and finite N, providing a comprehensive analysis of the phase transition.

Findings

Weak coupling trans-series are divergent with non-perturbative completions.

Strong coupling expansion is convergent but still admits non-perturbative contributions.

Instanton terms condense at the transition, matching double-scaling limit trans-series.

Abstract

We study the change in the resurgent asymptotic properties of a trans-series in two parameters, a coupling $g^2$ and a gauge index $N$, as a system passes through a large $N$ phase transition, using the universal example of the Gross-Witten-Wadia third-order phase transition in the unitary matrix model. This transition is well-studied in the immediate vicinity of the transition point, where it is characterized by a double-scaling limit Painlev\'e II equation, and also away from the transition point using the pre-string difference equation. Here we present a complementary analysis of the transition at all coupling and all finite N, in terms of a differential equation, using the explicit Tracy-Widom mapping of the Gross-Witten-Wadia partition function to a solution of a Painlev\'e III equation. This mapping provides a simple method to generate trans-series expansions in all parameter regimes, and to study their transmutation as the parameters are varied. For example, at any finite N the weak coupling expansion is divergent, with a non-perturbative trans-series completion; on the other hand, the strong coupling expansion is convergent, and yet there is still a non-perturbative trans-series completion. We show how the different instanton terms `condense' at the transition point to match with the double-scaling limit trans-series. We also define a uniform large N strong-coupling expansion (a non-linear analogue of uniform WKB), which is much more precise than the conventional large N expansion through the transition region, and apply it to the evaluation of Wilson loops.