1995/11/30 by G. Grignani, Pasquale Sodano, G. Semenoff +4 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum many-body systems #Theoretical and Computational Physics #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0217751x96001930
published as Int.J.Mod.Phys. A11 (1996) 4103-4128 · 27 pages, latex, no figures. References addded and some misprints corrected
arxiv created 1995/12/04 · openalex publication_date 1996/09/10 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We compute the effective action and correlators of the Polyakov loop operator in the Schwinger model at finite temperature and discuss the realization of the discrete symmetries that occur there. We show that, due to nonlocal effects of massless fermions in two space–time dimensions, the discrete symmetry which governs the screening of charges is spontaneously broken even in an effective one-dimensional model, when the volume is infinite. In this limit, the thermal state of the Schwinger model screens an arbitrary external charge; consequently the model is in the deconfined phase, with the charge of the deconfined fermions completely screened. In a finite volume we show that the Schwinger model is always confining.