PHASE TRANSITION OF N-COMPONENT SUPERCONDUCTORS

Abstract

We investigate the phase transition in the three-dimensional abelian Higgs model for N complex scalar fields, using the gauge-invariant average action Γ_{k}. The dependence of Γ_{k} on the effective infra-red cut-off k is described by a non-perturbative flow equation. The transition turns out to be first- or second-order, depending on the ratio between scalar and gauge coupling. We look at the fixed points of the theory for various N and compute the critical exponents of the model. Comparison with results from the ε-expansion shows a rather poor convergence for ε=1 even for large N. This is in contrast to the surprisingly good results of the ε-expansion for pure scalar theories. Our results suggest the existence of a parameter range with a second-order transition for all N, including the case of the superconductor phase transition for N=1.

30p. with 9 uuencoded .eps-figures appended, LaTeX