The confined-deconfined surface tension in SU(N) gauge theories at large N

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the interface tension and latent heat in pure SU(N) gauge theories scale with N at large N, finding both scale as N^2, which informs understanding of phase transitions in these theories.

Contribution

It provides the first clear evidence that both the interface tension and latent heat scale as N^2 in large N SU(N) gauge theories, using lattice measurements.

Findings

Interface tension scales as N^2 at large N

Latent heat scales as N^2 at large N

Confirmed phase transition properties in SU(N) gauge theories

Abstract

We present results from an investigation of the $N$-dependency of the confined-deconfined interface tension and latent heat in pure SU($N$) gauge theory at large $N$. The interface tension is determined by measuring the transverse fluctuations of the phase interface on large lattices with coexisting confined and deconfined phases. We observe unambiguously that both the interface tension and latent heat scale as $N^2$ at large $N$.