Structure of Chiral Phase Transitions at Finite Temperature in Abelian Gauge Theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates how chiral symmetry breaking occurs at finite temperature in strong-coupling Abelian gauge theories, revealing a second-order phase transition influenced by thermal effects on the photon propagator.

Contribution

It provides a numerical analysis of the chiral phase transition in Abelian gauge theories, including the impact of hard thermal loops on the phase structure.

Findings

Chiral symmetry is broken below a critical temperature for large coupling.

The phase transition is of second order.

The phase diagram on the T-α plane is mapped out.

Abstract

The mechanism of the chiral symmetry breaking is investigated in the strong-coupling Abelian gauge theories at finite temperature. The Schwinger-Dyson equation in Landau gauge is employed in the real time formalism and is solved numerically within the framework of the instantaneous exchange approximation including the effect of the hard thermal loop for the photon propagator. It is found that the chiral symmetry is broken below the critical temperature T for sufficiently large coupling. The chiral phase transition is found to be of the 2nd order and the phase diagram on the $T-\alpha$ plane is obtained. It is investigated how the structure of the chiral phase transition is affected by the hard thermal loops in the photon propagator.