INTERFACE TENSION IN SU(3) LATTICE GAUGE-THEORY AT FINITE TEMPERATURES ON AN N(T)=2 LATTICE

The surface tension σ of the confined-deconfined interface is calculated in pure SU(3) lattice gauge theory at finite temperatures employing the operator and integral methods on a lattice of a size 82×Nz×2 with Nz=16 and 40. A mild size dependence of 20% is observed for the integral method, while the operator results suffer from a severe size effect of a factor of 2 between the two lattice sizes. The problems of the operator method associated with nonperturbative corrections to asymmetry response functions are discussed. Our result with the integral method σ/Tc3=0.134(16) for Nz=40 is consistent with that obtained with a transfer matrix method, while a determination with a histogram method gives a slightly smaller value. A result is also reported on σ obtained on a lattice 182×48×4 with the integral method. © 1994 The American Physical Society.