Three-dimensional U(1) gauge+Higgs theory as an effective theory for finite temperature phase transitions

We study the three-dimensional U(1)+Higgs theory (Ginzburg-Landau model) as an effective theory for finite temperature phase transitions from the 1 K scale of superconductivity to the relativistic scales of scalar electrodynamics. The relations between the parameters of the physical theory and the parameters of the 3d effective theory are given. The 3d theory as such is studied with lattice Monte Carlo techniques. The phase diagram, the characteristics of the transition in the first order regime, and scalar and vector correlation lengths are determined. We find that even rather deep in the first order regime, the transition is weaker than indicated by 2-loop perturbation theory. Topological effects caused by the compact formulation are studied, and it is demonstrated that they vanish in the continuum limit. In particular, the photon mass (inverse correlation length) is observed to be zero within statistical errors in the symmetric phase, thus constituting an effective order parameter.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figure

Vortices in equilibrium scalar electrodynamics

Scalar electrodynamics can be used to investigate the formation of cosmic strings in the early universe. We present the results of lattice Monte Carlo simulations of an effective three-dimensional U(1)+Higgs theory that describes the equilibrium properties of finite-temperature scalar electrodynamics near the transition. A gauge-invariant criterion for the existence of a vortex is used in measuring the properties of the vortex network in the equilibrium state both in the Coulomb and in the Higgs phase of the system. The naive definition of the vortex density becomes meaningless in the continuum limit and special care is needed in extracting physical quantities. Numerical evidence for a physical discontinuity in the vortex density is given.Comment: 4 pages. Talk given by A. Rajantie at PASCOS-98, March 199

High-T QCD and dimensional reduction: measuring the Debye mass

We study the high-temperature phase of SU(2) and SU(3) QCD using lattice simulations of an effective 3-dimensional SU(N) + adjoint Higgs -theory, obtained through dimensional reduction. We investigate the phase diagram of the 3D theory, and find that the high-T QCD phase corresponds to the metastable symmetric phase of the 3D theory. We measure the Debye screening mass m_D with gauge invariant operators; in particular we determine the O(g^2) and O(g^3) corrections to m_D. The corrections are seen to be large, modifying the standard power-counting hierarchy in high temperature QCD.Comment: 3 pages, Latex, 3 figures. Presented by K. Rummukainen at Lattice '9

B spectroscopy using all-to-all propagators

We measure the ground and excited states for B mesons in the static limit using maximally variance reduced estimators for light quark propagators. Because of the large number of propagators we are able to measure accurately also orbitally excited P, D and F states. We also present some results for Lambda_b.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures. Talk presented at Lattice '97 by J. Peis

Towards a lattice determination of the B∗BπB^\ast B \pi coupling

The coupling $g_{B^\ast B \pi}$ is related to the form factor at zero momentum of the axial current between $B^\ast$- and $B$-states. This form factor is evaluated on the lattice using static heavy quarks and light quark propagators determined by a stochastic inversion of the fermionic bilinear. The \gBBP coupling is related to the coupling $g$ between heavy mesons and low-momentum pions in the effective heavy meson chiral lagrangian. The coupling of the effective theory can therefore be computed by numerical simulations. We find the value $g = 0.42(4)(8)$. Besides its theoretical interest, the phenomenological implications of such a determination are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Gauge-invariant strings in the 3d U(1)+Higgs theory

We describe how the strings, which are classical solutions of the continuum three-dimensional U(1)+Higgs theory, can be studied on the lattice. The effect of an external magnetic field is also discussed and the first results on the string free energy are presented. It is shown that the string free energy can be used as an order parameter when the scalar self-coupling is large and the transition is continuous.Comment: LATTICE98(higgs); missing author added, no changes to tex

The order of the phase transition in 3d U(1)+Higgs theory

We study the order of the phase transition in the 3d U(1)+Higgs theory, which is the Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity. We confirm that for small scalar self-coupling the transition is of first order. For large scalar self-coupling the transition ceases to be of first order, and a non-vanishing scalar mass suggests that the transition may even be of higher than second order.Comment: Poster at LATTICE96(electroweak). 4 pages, 5 figure

Maximal variance reduction for stochastic propagators with applications to the static quark spectrum

We study a new method -- maximal variance reduction -- for reducing the variance of stochastic estimators for quark propagators. We find that while this method is comparable to usual iterative inversion for light-light mesons, a considerable improvement is achieved for systems containing at least one infinitely heavy quark. Such systems are needed for heavy quark effective theory. As an illustration of the effectiveness of the method we present results for the masses of the ground state and excited states of $\bar{Q}q$ mesons and $\bar{Q}qq$ baryons. We compare these results with the experimental spectra involving $b$ quarks.Comment: 31 pages with 7 postscript file

Light hadron spectroscopy with O(a) improved dynamical fermions

We present the first results for the static quark potential and the light hadron spectrum using dynamical fermions at $\beta=5.2$ using an O(a) improved Wilson fermion action together with the standard Wilson plaquette action for the gauge part. Sea quark masses were chosen such that the pseudoscalar-vector mass ratio, m_PS/m_V$, varies from 0.86 to 0.67. Finite-size effects are studied by using three different volumes, 8^3\cdot 24, 12^3\cdot 24 and 16^3\cdot 24. Comparing our results to previous ones obtained using the quenched approximation, we find evidence for sea quark effects in quantities like the static quark potential and the vector-pseudoscalar hyperfine splitting.Comment: 38 pages, 14 Postscript figure, LaTe