Finite Volume Effects in Thermal Field Theory

Understand

We analyze the effect of a finite volume on the thermodynamic potentials of a relativistic quantum field theory defined on a hypertorus at vanishing chemical potential.

• Using the symmetries of the Euclidean partition function, we interpret the thermodynamic observables as the expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor in the same theory living on a $\beta\times L^2$ volume.
• In the case where the screening correlation lengths in the thermal system are finite, we obtain a closed formula for the leading finite volume effects in terms of the smallest screening mass.
• This formula can be used to estimate, and possibly correct for, the leading finite volume effects in lattice calculations of QCD thermodynamics.