Self-avoiding effective strings in lattice gauge theories

TL;DR

This paper links the effective string in 3D gauge theories to 2D self-avoiding walk models, predicting a universal deconfinement temperature and revealing a supersymmetric phase transition at the deconfinement point.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpretation of the effective string as a model of self-avoiding walks, connecting gauge theory deconfinement to polymer physics and phase transitions.

Findings

Universal deconfinement temperature predicted

Effective string described by 2D self-avoiding walks

Deconfinement point corresponds to a tricritical Theta point

Abstract

It is shown that the effective string recently introduced to describe the long distance dynamics of 3D gauge systems in the confining phase has an intriguing description in terms of models of 2D self-avoiding walks in the dense phase. The deconfinement point, where the effective string becomes N=2 supersymmetric, may then be interpreted as the tricritical Theta point where the polymer chain undergoes a collapse transition. As a consequence, a universal value of the deconfinement temperature is predicted.