Compact QED: the photon propagator, confinement and positivity violation for the pure gauge theory

Abstract

The lattice Landau gauge photon propagator for the pure gauge theory is revisited by using large lattices. For the confined case we show that it has an associated linearly growing potential, it has a mass gap, that is related to the presence of monopoles, and its spectral function violates positivity. In the deconfined phase, our simulations suggest that a free field theory is recovered in the thermodynamic limit.