A lattice study of 3D compact QED at finite temperature

TL;DR

This study investigates the deconfinement transition and monopole behavior in 3D compact QED at finite temperature using lattice simulations, revealing how monopoles influence phase change and cluster structures.

Contribution

It provides a numerical analysis of monopole properties and their relation to confinement and deconfinement phases, including a simplified model for critical coupling prediction.

Findings

Monopoles form a dilute gas of dipoles in the deconfinement phase.

Monopole density and string tension differ from semiclassical estimates when monopole binding is ignored.

The monopole cluster structure aligns with theoretical predictions regarding string tension and monopole density.

Abstract

We study the deconfinement phase transition and monopole properties in the finite temperature 3D compact Abelian gauge model on the lattice. We predict the critical coupling as function of the lattice size in a simplified model to describe monopole binding. We demonstrate numerically that the monopoles are sensitive to the transition. In the deconfinement phase the monopoles appear in the form of a dilute gas of magnetic dipoles. In the confinement phase both monopole density and string tension differ from semiclassical estimates if monopole binding is neglected. However, the analysis of the monopole clusters shows that the relation between the string tension and the density of monopoles in charged clusters is in reasonable agreement with those predictions. We study the cluster structure of the vacuum in both phases of the model.