Higgs-inspired corrections to the RG flow in the finite-temperature 3D Georgi-Glashow model and its SU(N)-generalization

The Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) RG flow in the ensemble of monopoles existing in the finite-temperature (2+1)D Georgi-Glashow model is explored in the regime when the Higgs field is not infinitely heavy, but its mass is rather of the same order of magnitude as the mass of the W-boson. The corrections to the standard RG flow are derived to the leading order in the inverse mass of the Higgs boson. According to the obtained RG equations, the scaling of the free-energy density in the critical region and the value of the critical temperature of the phase transition are found to be unaffected by the finiteness of the Higgs-boson mass. The evolution of the Higgs mass itself is also investigated and shown to be rather weak, that enables one to treat this parameter as a constant. The same analysis is further performed in the SU(N)-case at N>2, where the RG invariance is demonstrated to hold only approximately, in a certain sense. Modulo this approximation, the critical behaviour of the SU(N)-model turns out to be identical to that of the SU(2)-one.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX2e, no figure

Chiral thermodynamics in a magnetic field

We study thermodynamic properties of the QCD vacuum in a magnetic field below chiral phase transition. The hadronic phase free energy in a constant homogeneous magnetic field is calculated in the framework of the chiral perturbation theory at non-zero pionic mass. It is demonstrated that the order parameter of the chiral phase transition remains constant provided temperature and magnetic field strength are related through obtained equation (the phenomenon of ''quark condensate freezing'').Comment: RevTeX4, 9 pages, no figure

BCS-Bose Crossover in Color Superconductivity

It is shown that the onset of the color superconducting phase occurs in the BCS-BE crossover region.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX, references adde

Interaction of electric charges in (2+1)D magnetic dipole gas

The interaction of electrically charged particles in a dilute gas of point--like magnetic dipoles is studied. We show that the interaction potential at small distances has a linear piece due to overlap of the dipole clouds gathered near electric sources. At large distances the potential becomes of the Coulomb type with non-perturbatively renormalized charge of the test particle. The physical applications of these results are discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 12 EPS figures, RevTeX, uses epsfig.sty; misprints corrected (to appear in Phys.Rev.D

A lattice study of 3D compact QED at finite temperature

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.Comment: 18 pages, 14 EPS figures, LaTeX uses epsfig.st

The chicken or the egg; or Who ordered the chiral phase transition?

We draw an analogy between the deconfining transition in the 2+1 dimensional Georgi-Glashow model and the chiral phase transition in 3+1 dimensional QCD. Based on the detailed analysis of the former (hep-th/0010201) we suggest that the chiral symmetry restoration in QCD at high temperature is driven by the thermal ensemble of baryons and anti-baryons. The chiral symmetry is restored when roughly half of the volume is occupied by the baryons. Surprisingly enough, even though baryons are rather heavy, a crude estimate for the critical temperature gives $T_c=180$ Mev. In this scenario the binding of the instantons is not the cause but rather a consequence of the chiral symmetry restoration.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, comments about chiral symmetry at finite nuclear density are adde

Photon propagator, monopoles and the thermal phase transition in 3D compact QED

We investigate the gauge boson propagator in three dimensional compact Abelian gauge model in the Landau gauge at finite temperature. The presence of the monopole plasma in the confinement phase leads to appearance of an anomalous dimension in the momentum dependence of the propagator. The anomalous dimension as well as an appropriate ratio of photon wave function renormalization constants with and without monopoles are observed to be order parameters for the deconfinement phase transition. We discuss the relation between our results and the confining properties of the gluon propagator in non--Abelian gauge theories.Comment: 4 pages, 5 EPS figures, RevTeX 4, uses epsfig.sty; repaced to match version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. (discussion on fits is extended

The photon propagator in compact QED_{2+1}: the effect of wrapping Dirac strings

We discuss the influence of closed Dirac strings on the photon propagator in the Landau gauge emerging from a study of the compact U(1) gauge model in 2+1 dimensions. This gauge also minimizes the total length of the Dirac strings. Closed Dirac strings are stable against local gauge-fixing algorithms only due to the torus boundary conditions of the lattice. We demonstrate that these left-over Dirac strings are responsible for the previously observed unphysical behavior of the propagator of space-like photons (D_T) in the deconfinement (high temperature) phase. We show how one can monitor the number N_3 of thermal Dirac strings which allows to separate the propagator measurements into N_3 sectors. The propagator in N_3 \neq 0 sectors is characterized by a non--zero mass and an anomalous dimension similarly to the confinement phase. Both mass squared and anomalous dimension are found to be proportional to N_3. Consequently, in the N_3=0 sector the unphysical behavior of the D_T photon propagator is cured and the deviation from the free massless propagator disappears.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 1 tabl

Phase Structure and Nonperturbative States in Three-Dimensional Adjoint Higgs Model

The thermodynamics of 3d adjoint Higgs model is considered. We study the properties of the Polyakov loop correlators and the critical behavior at the deconfinement phase transition. Our main tool is a reduction to the 2d sine-Gordon model. The Polyakov loops appear to be connected with the soliton operators in it. The known exact results in the sine-Gordon theory allow us to study in detail the temperature dependence of the string tension, as well as to get some information about a nonperturbative dynamics in the confinement phase. We also consider the symmetry restoration at high temperature which makes it possible to construct the phase diagram of the model completely.Comment: 15pp., Revtex; 4 figures; replaced by a version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Glueballs, gluerings and gluestars in the d=2+1 SU(N) gauge theory

The 3d gluodynamics which governs the large T quark gluon plasma is studied in the framework of the field correlator method. Field correlators and spacial string tension are derived through the gluelump Green's functions. The glueball spectrum is calculated both in C=-1 as well as in C=+1 sectors, and multigluon bound states in the form of "gluon rings" and "gluon stars" are computed explicitly. Good overall agreement with available lattice data is observed.Comment: 19 page