The θ-dependence of the SU(N) critical temperature at large N

Abstract

Abstract We investigate, by means of numerical lattice simulations, the θ-dependence of the critical deconfinement temperature of SU(N) gauge theories at large N : T c (θ) = T c (0)[1 – Rθ 2 + O(θ 4)], with R ~ O(1/N 2). We follow two different strategies to determine R, one based on the calculation of the latent heat of the transition and on the jump of the topological susceptibility at the θ = 0 critical point, the other relying on a direct probe of T c (θ) by means of imaginary-θ Monte Carlo simulations. Our results show that R follows the expected large-N scaling.

Keywords

• 1/N Expansion
• Lattice QCD
• Phase Transitions
• Vacuum Structure and Confinement