Matter fields near quantum critical point in image-dimensional image gauge theory Original Research Article

We study chiral phase transition and confinement of matter fields in image-dimensional image gauge theory of massless Dirac fermions and scalar bosons. The vanishing scalar boson mass, image, defines a quantum critical point between the Higgs phase and the Coulomb phase. We consider only the critical point image and the Coulomb phase with image. The Dirac fermion acquires a dynamical mass when its flavor is less than certain critical value image, which depends quantitatively on the flavor image and the scalar boson mass r. When image, the matter fields carrying internal gauge charge are all confined if image but are deconfined at the quantum critical point image. The system has distinct low-energy elementary excitations at the critical point image and in the Coulomb phase with image. We calculate the specific heat and susceptibility of the system at image and image, which can help to detect the quantum critical point and to judge whether dynamical fermion mass generation takes place.