When is the deconfinement phase transition universal.pdfVIP

a r X i v : h e p - l a t / 0 3 0 9 0 0 8 v 1 2 S e p 2 0 0 3 February 1, 2008 4:14 WSPC/Trim Size: 9in x 6in for Proceedings holland˙conf2003˙proc WHEN IS THE DECONFINEMENT PHASE TRANSITION UNIVERSAL? K. HOLLAND Department of Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0319, USA M. PEPE AND U. -J. WIESE? Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland Pure Yang-Mills theory has a finite-temperature phase transition, separating the confined and deconfined bulk phases. Svetitsky and Yaffe conjectured that if this phase transition is of second order, it belongs to the universality class of transitions for particular scalar field theories in one lower dimension. We examine Yang-Mills theory with the symplectic gauge groups Sp(N). We find new evidence supporting the Svetitsky-Yaffe conjecture and make our own conjecture as to which gauge theories have a universal second order deconfinement phase transition. 1. INTRODUCTION Yang-Mills theories with gauge group G have a finite-temperature phase transition, separating the confined phase of colorless glueballs from the deconfined gluon plasma phase1. The transition is signalled by the sponta- neous breaking of a global symmetry2 related to H , the center of G. The Polyakov loop is the order parameter for the transition3, transforming as Φ(~x)′ = zΦ(~x), z ∈ H under the global center transformation. Its expecta- tion value is 〈Φ〉 = exp(?βFq), where Fq is the free energy of a static quark in the gluon background, β = 1/T is the time extent and T is the temper- ature. In the confined phase, there are no isolated quarks and Fq → ∞ in the infinite volume limit, giving 〈Φ〉 = 0. In the deconfined phase, Fq is finite and 〈Φ〉 6= 0, spontaneously breaking the global center symmetry. Svetitsky and Yaffe conjectured that if Yang-Mills theory with gauge group G has a second order deconfinement transition, with the correlation ?on leave from MIT. 1 February 1, 2