QED(1+1) at Finite Temperature -- a Study with Light-Cone Quantisation

TL;DR

This paper investigates finite-temperature quantum electrodynamics in (1+1) dimensions using Discretized Light-Cone Quantisation, revealing a growing specific heat peak and finite size artifacts affecting the density of states.

Contribution

It applies DLCQ to finite-temperature QED(1+1), analyzing thermodynamic properties and identifying finite size effects in the spectrum.

Findings

Specific heat peak grows near continuum limit

Finite size artifacts significantly affect the density of states

Tentative critical exponent extracted

Abstract

We explore quantum electrodynamics in (1+1) dimensions at finite temperature using the method of Discretized Light-Cone Quantisation. The partition function, energy and specific heat are computed in the canonical ensemble using the spectrum of invariant masses computed with a standard DLCQ numerical routine. In particular, the specific heat exhibits a peak which grows as the continuum limit is numerically approached. A critical exponent is tentatively extracted. The surprising result is that the density of states contains significant finite size artifacts even for a relatively high harmonic resolution. These and the other outstanding problems in the present calculation are discussed.