Mass gap and finite-size effects in finite temperature SU (2) lattice gauge theory

Abstract

This letter is devoted to the investigation of the point-point Polyakov loop correlators in SU (2) lattice gauge theory on 4 N s 3 lattices with N s=8, 12, 18 and 26. We use an analytic expression for point-point correlators provided by the transfer matrix formalism to study the temperature dependence of the mass gap μ m.g. and the corresponding matrix element ν near the critical point in a finite volume. The finite-size scaling analysis of the values μ m.g.( β; N s) obtained gives the possibility to extract the critical value β c, the critical exponent ν and the surface tension α s.t..