Global symmetry breaking in gauge theories: the case of multiflavor scalar chromodynamics

Abstract

Universal features of continuous phase transitions can be investigated by studying the ${\varphi }^4$ field theory with the corresponding global symmetry breaking pattern. When gauge symmetries are present, the same technique is usually applied to a gauge-invariant order parameter field, as in the Pisarski-Wilczek analysis of the QCD chiral phase transition. Gauge fields are thus assumed to be irrelevant in the effective critical model, a fact that is however far from trivial. We will investigate the validity of this approach using three-dimensional scalar lattice models with non-abelian global and local symmetries, for which critical exponents and scaling functions can be numerically determined with high accuracy.

Comments: proceeding for The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE2021, 26th-30th July, 2021, Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology