Cluster percolation and thermal critical behavior

Sep, 2001

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Abstract:
Continuous phase transitions in spin systems can be formulated as percolation of suitably defined clusters. We review this equivalence and then discuss how in a similar way, the color deconfinement transition in SU(2) gauge theory can be treated as a percolation phenomenon. In the presence of an external field, spin systems cease to show thermal critical behavior, but the geometric percolation transition persists (Kert\'esz line). For H0H\not=0, we study the relation between percolation and pseudocritical behavior, both for continuous and first order transitions, and show that it leads to the necessity of an HH-dependent cluster definition. A viable formulation of this kind could serve as definition of deconfinement in QCD with dynamical quarks.
Note:
  • 8 pages, 4 figures Report-no: BI-TP 2001/20
  • talk: Aachen 2001/09/05
  • model: spin
  • critical phenomena
  • cluster: percolation
  • gauge field theory: SU(2)
  • confinement
  • finite temperature
  • numerical calculations