On the Interplay of Fermions and Monopoles in Compact QED_3
  The infra-red properties of three-dimensional abelian lattice gauge theory are known to be governed by a neutral plasma of magnetic monopole excitations. We address the fate of these monopoles in the presence of light dynamical fermions, using a lattice formulation of compact QED_3 with N_f=4 fermion flavors supplemented by a four-fermi contact term permitting numerical Monte Carlo simulations in the chiral limit. Our data hint at a restoration of chiral symmetry above a critical value of the (inverse) coupling beta. By performing simulations in a sector of non-vanishing magnetic charge, we are able to study the response of the theory to an external magnetic test charge. Our results suggest that the monopole plasma persists even once chiral symmetry is restored, and hence survives the continuum limit. 
Simon Hands, John B. Kogut and Biagio Lucini