Phase structure of 3D Z(N) lattice gauge theories at finite temperature

Understand

We perform a numerical study of the phase transitions in three-dimensional Z(N) lattice gauge theories at finite temperature for N>4.

• Using the dual formulation of the models and a cluster algorithm we locate the position of the critical points and study the critical behavior across both phase transitions in details.
• In particular, we determine various critical indices, compute the average action and the specific heat.
• Our results are consistent with the two transitions being of infinite order.