A study of the bulk phase transitions of the SU(2) lattice gauge theory with mixed action Original Research Article

Using the finite size scaling theory, we reexamine the nature of the bulk phase transition in the fundamental-adjoint coupling plane of the SU(2) lattice gauge theory at βA = 1.25 where previous finite size scaling investigations of the deconfinement phase transition showed it to be of first order for temporal lattices with four sites. Our simulations on N4 lattices with N = 6, 8, 10, 12 and 16 show an absence of a first order bulk phase transition. We find the discontinuity in the average plaquette to decrease approximately linearly with N. Correspondingly, the plaquette susceptibility grows a lot slower with the 4-volume of the lattice than expected from a first order bulk phase transition.