Chiral symmetry breaking and monopole dynamics in noncompact QED(3) coupled to a four-Fermi interaction

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.82.014503

Authors: Wesley Armour (Diamond Light Source) , John B. Kogut (Department of Energy, Division of High Energy Physics) , Costas Strouthos (The Cyprus Institute)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Review D , VOL 82 (1)

State: Published (Approved)
Published: January 2010

Abstract: We present results from the first lattice simulations of three-dimensional noncompact quantum electrodynamics (QED(3)) with N-f four-component fermion flavors coupled to a weak Z(2) chirally invariant four-fermi interaction. Results with N-f >= 4 show that the scaling near the strong coupling chiral transition or sharp crossover is determined by the 3d Gross-Neveu ultraviolet-stable renormalization group fixed point. Small deviations of the N-f = 4 critical exponents from the respective Gross-Neveu ones, hint at evidence for nonzero fermion mass generated by the gauge fields dynamics that might have been enhanced by the four-fermi coupling. It is also shown that the scaling region is suppressed at weak four-fermi couplings and large N-f values. Measurements of (i) a monopole susceptibility which is the polarizability of the monopole configurations, and (ii) the density of isolated monopoles, imply that for N-f >= 1 and weak gauge couplings the monopoles do not affect the theory's confining properties, because they are shielded.

Subject Areas: Physics


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