Related papers: A survey of large N continuum phase transitions

Numerical studies support the conjecture that in continuum planar QCD the eigenvalue density of a Wilson loop operator undergoes a transition as the loop is dilated while keeping the loop shape fixed. A second part of the conjecture is that…

The eigenvalues of Wilson loop matrices in SU(N) gauge theories in dimensions 2,3,4 at infinite N are supported on a small arc on the unit circle centered at $z=1$ for small loops, but expand to the entire unit circle for large loops. These…

Wilson loops in large N gauge theory exhibit a weak to strong coupling transition as the loop is dilated. A multiplicative matrix model captures the universal behavior associated with this transition. A universal scaling function is…

We investigate numerically various phase transitions and non-analyticities at large N using both twisted Eguchi-Kawai space-time reduction and the standard Wilson theory.

We compute the exact partition function for pure continuous Yang-Mills theory on the two-sphere in the large $N$ limit, and find that it exhibits a large $N$ third order phase transition with respect to the area $A$ of the sphere. The weak…

Large-N phase transitions occurring in massive N=2 theories can be probed by Wilson loops in large antisymmetric representations. The logarithm of the Wilson loop is effectively described by the free energy of a Fermi distribution and…

This is an edited version of an unpublished 1979 EFI (U. Chicago) preprint: "The U(N) lattice gauge theory in 2-dimensions can be considered as the statistical mechanics of a Coulomb gas on a circle in a constant electric field. The large N…

Large $N$ two-dimensional QCD on a cylinder and on a vertex manifold (a sphere with three holes) is investigated. The relation between the saddle-point description and the collective field theory of QCD$_2$ is established. Using this…

We define smoothed Wilson loop operators on a four dimensional lattice and check numerically that they have a finite and nontrivial continuum limit. The continuum operators maintain their character as unitary matrices and undergo a phase…

We show that the large N partition functions and Wilson loop observables of two-dimensional Yang-Mills theories admit a universal functional form irrespective of the gauge group. We demonstrate that U(N) QCD_2 undergoes a large N,…

At infinite N, continuum Euclidean SU(N) gauge theory defined on a symmetrical four torus has a rich phase structure with phases where the finite volume system behaves as if it had infinite extent in some or all of the directions. In…

We review two-dimensional QCD. The report contains: 1. Introduction. 2. QCD$_2$ as a field theory 2.1 The 1/N expansion and spectrum, 2.2 Ambiguity in the self-energy of the quark, 2.3 Polyakov--Wiegmann formula and gauge interactions, 2.4…

The eigenvalue distribution of a Wilson loop operator of fixed shape undergoes a transition under scaling at infinite N. We derive a large N scaling function in a double scaling limit of the average characteristic polynomial associated with…

We study U(1) gauge theory on a 4d non-commutative torus, where two directions are non-commutative. Monte Carlo simulations are performed after mapping the regularized theory onto a U(N) lattice gauge theory in d=2. At intermediate coupling…

Dynamics of confinement, chiral symmetry breaking and thermal phase transition is considered at large $N_c$. It is argued that these phenomena are quantitatively well described within the Gaussian stochastic model of the QCD vacuum.…

We investigate the large-N phase transition of lattice SU(N) gauge theories in the Wilson formulation, by performing a Monte Carlo simulation of the twisted Eguchi-Kawai model. A variant of the multicanonical algorithm allows a detailed…

A matrix model is constructed which describes a chiral version of the large $N$ $U(N)$ gauge theory on a two-dimensional sphere of area $A$. This theory has three separate phases. The large area phase describes the associated chiral string…

We consider gauge theories of non-Abelian $finite$ groups, and discuss the 1+1 dimensional lattice gauge theory of the permutation group $S_N$ as an illustrative example. The partition function at finite $N$ can be written explicitly in a…

We study three-dimensional {\cal N}=2 U(N) Chern-Simons theory on S^3 coupled to 2N_f chiral multiplets deformed by mass terms. The partition function localizes to a matrix integral, which can be exactly computed in the large N limit. In a…

In Euclidean four-dimensional SU(N) pure gauge theory, eigenvalue distributions of Wilson loop parallel transport matrices around closed spacetime curves show non-analytic behavior (a 'large-N phase transition') at a critical size of the…