LEE-YANG ZEROS AND THE CHIRAL PHASE-TRANSITION IN COMPACT LATTICE QED

In this paper we present a detailed study of the phase structure in the β-m plane for compact lattice QED. We analyze the scaling properties of the distribution of the partition function zeros in the complex fermion mass plane on 44, 64, 84, and 104 lattices. The partition function is numerically evaluated by using two independent methods, based, respectively, on a standard HMC (hybrid Monte Carlo) program and on an alternative approach derived from the MFA (microcanonical fermionic average). The finite size scaling behavior gives strong indications for a first-order phase transition at any value of the fermion mass. The reliability of the result follows from the remarkable agreement between the two independent methods. © 1995 The American Physical Society.