On the Nature of the Phase Transition in SU(N), Sp(2) and E(7) Yang-Mills theory

Understand

We study the nature of the confinement phase transition in d=3+1 dimensions in various non-abelian gauge theories with the approach put forward in [1].

• We compute an order-parameter potential associated with the Polyakov loop from the knowledge of full 2-point correlation functions.
• For SU(N) with N=3,...,12 and Sp(2) we find a first-order phase transition in agreement with general expectations.
• Moreover our study suggests that the phase transition in E(7) Yang-Mills theory also is of first order.