Confined-deconfined interface tension and latent heat in SU(N) gauge theory

Abstract

We present high-precision lattice results for the confined-deconfined interface tension and the latent heat of pure SU($N$) gauge theories up to $N=10$ and investigate their asymptotic $N$-dependency. For both quantities we observe the leading $N^2$ behaviour and subleading corrections, with the result for the interface tension $\sigma/T_c^3 = 0.0182(7) N^2 - 0.194(15)$ and for the latent heat $L/T_c^4 = 0.360(6) N^2 - 1.88(17)$. We use the \emph{mixed phase ensemble} method - where the system is constrained so that half of the volume is in the confined phase and the other half in the deconfined phase - and the interface tension is obtained by measuring the capillary wave fluctuation spectra of the interfaces between the two phases. The method bypasses supercritical slowing down from which other methods for determining the interface tension suffer, and as a by-product produces accurate estimates of the critical inverse gauge coupling as a function of the inverse temperature. We use the latter to determine the lattice beta function values, required to compute the latent heat from the discontinuity in the average plaquette action across the confined-deconfined transition.