Critical scaling of finite temperature QED_3 in anisotropic space-time

Abstract

We investigate the scaling behavior of the critical temperature of anisotropic QED in 2+1 dimensions with respect to a variation of the number of fermions N_f. To this end we determine the order parameter of the chiral transition of the theory from a set of (truncated) Dyson-Schwinger equations for the fermion propagator formulated in a finite volume. We verify the validity of previously determined universal power laws for the scaling behavior of the critical temperature with N_f. We furthermore study the variation of the corresponding critical exponent with the degree of anisotropy and find considerable variations.