IMSc Webinar

Critical phenomena in systems with gauge symmetries

Claudio Bonati

INFN Pisa

The modern theory of second order phase transitions (critical phenomena) lays at the crossroads of condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics and high-energy physics. The general ideas and the main applications of this theory are known since several decades, but the fact that systems with gauge symmetries can present peculiar behaviours has been fully appreciated only relatively recently. In this talk I will provide an introduction to the problematics connected with the presence of gauge symmetries, using as test-bed some paradigmatic lattice models which can be numerically studied by mean of Monte Carlo simulations, to investigate their critical behavior.