Gauge-invariant scalar and field strength correlators in 3d

Abstract

Gauge-invariant non-local scalar and field strength operators have been argued to have significance, e.g., as a way to determine the behaviour of the screened static potential at large distances, as order parameters for confinement, as input parameters in models of confinement, and as gauge-invariant definitions of light constituent masses in bound state systems. We measure such "correlators" in the 3d pure SU(2) and SU(2)+Higgs models on the lattice. We extract the corresponding mass parameters and discuss their scaling and physical interpretation. We find that the finite part of the MS-bar scheme mass measured from the field strength correlator is large, more than half the glueball mass. We also determine the non-perturbative contribution to the Debye mass in the 4d finite T SU(2) gauge theory with a method due to Arnold and Yaffe, finding $\delta m_D\approx 1.06(4)g^2T$.