Four-dimensional gonihedric gauge spin system

¹ The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
² Physics Department, National Technical University Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece
³ National Research Center Demokritos - Ag. Paraskevi, GR-15310 Athens, Greece

Received: 9 November 1998
Accepted: 19 February 1999

Abstract

We perform Monte Carlo simulations of a four-dimensional gauge-invariant spin system which describes random surfaces with gonihedric action. We develop the analogy between the flat-crumpled phase transition of the lattice surface model and the liquid-gas phase transition of non-ideal gases, and identify the self-intersection coupling constant k of the surface model with the pressure P. As k increases the system moves to a critical point in complete analogy with the situation for non-ideal gases, where the liquid and the gas phases approach each other with increasing P. We measure vacuum expectation values of various operators and the corresponding critical indices.