# KEK-TH-645 RIKEN BNL Research Center preprint SU(4) pure-gauge phase structure and string tensionsTalk presented by SO.The authors thank RIKEN, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy for providing the facilities essential for the completion of this work. SO thanks the RIKEN BNL Research Center for its hospitality.

## Abstract

We present numerical evidence that the SU(4) pure-gauge dynamics has a finite-temperature first-order phase transition. For a $`6\times 20^3`$ lattice, this transition occurs at the inverse-square coupling of $`8/g^210.79`$. Below this and above the known bulk phase transition at $`8/g^210.2`$ is a confined phase in which we find two different string tensions, one between the fundamental $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝟒}^{}`$ representations and the other between the self-dual diquark $`\mathrm{𝟔}`$ representations. The ratio of these two is about 1.5. The correlation in the adjoint representation suggests no string forms between adjoint charges.

There are renewed interests in SU($`N_c`$) pure Yang-Mills theory with large $`N_c`$:

1) Finite-temperature phase structure of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) would be easier to understand if the SU($`N_c`$) pure Yang-Mills system has a second order phase transition for $`N_c4`$ . With standard large-$`N_c`$ analysis where $`N_cg^2`$ is held fixed, the Z($`N_c`$) deconfinement transition occurs at $`T_dO(1)`$, separating confining phase with free energy $`FO(1)`$ and deconfining phase with $`FO(N_c^2)`$. The deconfining temperature $`T_dO(1)`$ is not effected if $`N_f`$ and $`g^2N_c`$ are held fixed and $`N_c\mathrm{}`$. If the transition is first order, it is not effected either. So large $`N_c`$ is not a reasonable guide for $`T0`$ QCD phase structure with Columbia phase diagram , unless SU($`N_c`$) pure Yang-Mills dynamics has second order deconfining phase transition for all $`N_c4`$.

2) New developments in M/string theory  predict such things as glueball spectrum at large $`N_c`$ and large $`g^2`$ or ratio between different string tensions for $`N_c4`$ .

3) The dimensionless ratio $`T_d/\sqrt{\sigma }`$ of the deconfining temperature $`T_d`$ and string tension $`\sigma `$ is expected to be independent of $`N_c`$ with a value$`\sqrt{3/\pi (D2)}`$ with $`D`$ being the space-time dimensions .

Here we report the results of our numerical investigation on the order of deconfining phase transition and the ratio of string tensions for $`N_c=4`$ . We use single-plaquette action defined in the fundamental $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$-representation of the SU(4) gauge group. Combinations of pseudo-heatbath or Metropolis and over-relaxation algorithms are used in updating 4, 6 and 8 $`\times 8^3`$, $`12^3`$, $`16^3`$ or $`20^3`$ lattices. Various workstations are used for the numerical calculations, while migration to the RIKEN BNL QCDSP mother boards is planned. We look at the following observables: plaquette, Polyakov loops, $`L(\stackrel{}{x})=(1/N_c)\mathrm{tr}_{t=1}^{L_t}U(\stackrel{}{x},t;\widehat{t})`$, in $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$ (fundamental), $`\mathrm{𝟔}`$ (antisymmetric diquark), $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$ (symmetric diquark) and $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟓}`$ (adjoint) representations, deconfinement fraction, and Polyakov loop correlation $`L(\stackrel{}{0})L(\stackrel{}{r})^{}r^1\mathrm{exp}(F(r)/T)\mathrm{exp}(L_t\sigma r\mathrm{ln}r)`$ in $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$, $`\mathrm{𝟔}`$, $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟓}`$ representations.

This SU(4) pure Yang-Mills system is known to have a bulk phase transition near $`\beta =8/g^210.2`$, separating two confining phases : across this transition the plaquette jumps discontinuously but the average Polyakov line in the fundamental $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$ representation remains zero on both sides. However if the lattice extent in temperature direction $`L_t`$ is too small this bulk transition drives a first-order finite-temperature deconfining transition just above itself in $`\beta `$ . We confirmed this is indeed the case for $`L_t=4`$. But for $`L_t6`$ we have good enough separation between the bulk and finite-temperature transitions as desired.

As is shown in Figure 1, on a $`6\times 20^3`$ lattice we confirmed coexistence of confined and deconfined phases at temperature $`\beta `$=10.79:

This strongly suggests a first-order deconfining phase transition. Work in progress confirms this phase coexistence as we extend the simulation from the present 3500 evolution steps (1 evolution = 5 heat bath + 1 over relaxation steps) to 20000 steps. We plan further study with finite-size scaling.

String tensions in SU($`N_c`$) pure Yang-Mills system is classified by its center Z($`N_c`$) $`N_c`$-ality. With $`N_c=4`$, the fundamental ($`\mathrm{𝟒}`$) charge has 4-ality $`k=1`$, the two diquark ($`\mathrm{𝟔}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$) charges $`k=2`$, and adjoint ($`\mathrm{𝟏𝟓}`$) $`k=0`$. The string tensions between these charges and their anticharges are predicted to behave as $`\sigma _k`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{min}\{k,N_ck\}`$ by a standard strong-coupling analysis, $`k(N_ck)`$ by another strong coupling analysis , and $`\mathrm{sin}(k\pi /N_c)`$ by a SUSY strong coupling analysis . Generally the ratio $`\sigma _k/\sigma _1`$ should fall in the interval $`1\sigma _k/\sigma _12`$ . Note also that $`N_c=4`$ is the first example with different string tensions: in SU(3) pure Yang-Mills system the fundamental ($`\mathrm{𝟑}`$) and the symmetric diquark ($`\mathrm{𝟔}`$) tensions are the same .

In our numerical calculation on a $`6\times 16^3`$ lattice at $`\beta =10.70`$ (see Figure 2):

we find a clear difference between $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$\- and $`\mathrm{𝟔}`$-string tensions extracted from $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$\- and $`\mathrm{𝟔}`$-Polyakov loop correlations. From fitting these data we have $`\sigma _4`$=0.068(4) and $`\sigma _6`$=0.108(17). At a stronger coupling of $`\beta `$=10.65 their values are 0.086(3) and 0.142(57) respectively. Thus their ratio $`\sigma _6/\sigma _4`$ does not show much temperature dependence and falls in the interval (1,2) as it should. We are yet to see any signal for $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟓}`$ representations from this lattice, probably because of too strong couplings. On the other hand at a weaker coupling of $`\beta `$=10.85 on a smaller lattice of $`8\times 12^3`$ (see Figure 3)

we find clear flattening of the adjoint ($`\mathrm{𝟏𝟓}`$) correlation.

For thermodynamics of SU(4) pure-gauge theory we confirmed that the bulk transition and $`T0`$ phase change are separated on $`L_t6`$ lattices, the bulk transition is at $`\beta _b10.2`$ and the finite-temperature 1st-order phase transition is at $`\beta _d10.79`$ ($`L_t=6`$) and $`10.9`$ ($`L_t=8`$), and easier to establish than weakly first-order SU(3). For string tensions, at $`L_t`$=6 we find signals for different string tensions in fundamental $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$ and antisymmetric $`\mathrm{𝟔}`$ representations, but no signal yet for symmetric diquark $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$ and adjoint $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟓}`$ representations. These strings satisfy a relation, $`1<\sigma _6/\sigma _4<2,`$ as they should, and the ratio does not show any strong temperature dependence. Combining these findings for thermodynamics and string tensions at $`L_t`$=6, we find an inequality: $`T_d/\sqrt{\sigma _4(T=0)}`$ $`<`$ $`T_d/\sqrt{\sigma _4(TT_d)}`$ $``$ 0.64 $`<`$ $`\sqrt{3/\pi (D2)}`$, just like in SU(2) and SU(3) pure-gauge results. At a weaker coupling of $`\beta =10.85`$ using a $`L_t`$=8 lattice we now have rather good evidence that there exists no string in the adjoint ($`\mathrm{𝟏𝟓}`$) representation. We plan further investigation on larger and finer lattices, probably using smaller partitions of the QCDSP parallel supercomputer at RIKEN BNL Research Center.