Compact QED in Landau gauge: A Lattice gauge fixing case study

May, 1993
18 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 48 (1993) 3377-3382
e-Print:
Report number:
  • LSU-431-93

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Abstract:
We derive different representations of compact QED fixed to Landau gauge by the lattice Faddeev-Popov procedure. Our analysis finds that (A)Nielsen-Olesen vortices arising from the compactness of the gauge-fixing action are {\it quenched\/}, that is, the Faddeev-Popov determinant cancels them out and they do not influence correlation functions such as the photon propagator; (B)Dirac strings are responsible for the nonzero mass pole of the photon propagator. Since in D=3+1D=3+1 the photon mass undergoes a rapid drop to zero at βc\beta_c, the deconfinement point, this result predicts that Dirac strings must be sufficiently dilute at β>βc\beta > \beta_c. Indeed, numerical simulations reveal that the string density undergoes a rapid drop to near zero at ββc\beta\sim \beta_c.
  • gauge field theory: U(1)
  • lattice field theory
  • Landau gauge
  • quantum electrodynamics: compact
  • gauge fixing
  • vortex
  • string: Dirac
  • photon: propagator
  • photon: mass
  • mass: photon
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