Numerical studies of gauge field theories

Conference · Mon Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981

OSTI ID:6248237

Creutz, M

Monte Carlo simulation of statistical systems is a well established technique of the condensed matter physicist. In the last few years, particle theorists have rediscovered this method and are having a marvelous time applying it to quantized gauge field theories. The main result has been strong numerical evidence that the standard SU(3) non-Abelian gauge theory of the strong interaction is capable of simultaneously confining quarks into the physical hadrons and exhibiting asymptotic freedom, the phenomenon of quark interactions being small at short distances. In four dimensions, confinement is a non-perturbative phenomenon. Essentially all models of confinement tie widely separated quarks together with strings of gauge field flux. This gives rise to a linear potential at long distances. A Monte Carlo program generates a sequence of field configuration by a series of random changes of the fields. The algorithm is so constructed that ultimately the probability density for finding any given configuration is proportional to the Boltzmann weighting. We bring our lattices into thermal equilibrium with a heat bath at a temperature specified by the coupling constant. Thus we do computer experiments with four-dimensional crystals stored in a computer memory. As the entire field configuration is stored, we have access to any correlation function desired. These lectures describe the kinds of experiments being done and the implications of these results for strong interaction physics.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 6248237
• Report Number(s): BNL-29840; CONF-810762-1; ON: DE81030526
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645400* -- High Energy Physics-- Field Theory
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COMPOSITE MODELS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
EXTENDED PARTICLE MODEL
FIELD THEORIES
FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
LATTICE FIELD THEORY
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MONTE CARLO METHOD
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PARTICLE MODELS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUARK MODEL
SIMULATION
STRING MODELS
SU GROUPS
SU-3 GROUPS
SYMMETRY GROUPS
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS