3 \usepackage[intlimits]{amsmath}
9 \title{Solving the sign problem of two flavored scalar electrodynamics at finite chemical potential}
11 \ShortTitle{Solving the sign problem of two-falvored scalar electrodynamics at finite chemical potential}
13 \author{Ydalia Delgado
14 \\Institut f\"ur Physik, Karl-Franzens Universit\"at, Graz, Austria
15 \\E-mail: \email{ydalia.delgado-mercado@uni-graz.at}}
17 \author{Christof Gattringer
18 \\Institut f\"ur Physik, Karl-Franzens Universit\"at, Graz, Austria
19 \\E-mail: \email{christof.gattringer@uni-graz.at}}
21 \author{Alexander Schmidt
22 \\Institut f\"ur Physik, Karl-Franzens Universit\"at, Graz, Austria
23 \\E-mail: \email{alexander.schmidt@uni-graz.at}}
27 We explore two-flavored scalar electrodynamics on the lattice, which has a complex phase problem
28 at finite chemical potential. By rewriting the action in terms of dual variables
29 this complex phase problem can be solved exactly. The dual variables are links and plaquettes, subject to non-trivial
30 constraints, which have to be respected by the Monte Carlo algorithm. For the simulation we use a local update that always obeys the constraints and the surface worm algorithm (SWA).
31 The SWA is a generalization of the Prokof'ev Svistunov
32 worm algorithm concept to simulate the dual representation of abelian Gauge-Higgs models on a lattice.
33 We also assess the performance of the SWA and compare it with the local update algorithm in the dual representation.
34 Finally, we determine the full phase diagram of the model.
37 \FullConference{XXIX International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory \\
38 July 29 $-$ August 03 2013\\
46 At finite chemical potential $\mu$ the fermion determinant becomes complex
47 and can not be interpreted as a probability weight in the Monte Carlo simulation.
48 This complex phase problem has slowed down considerably the exploration of QCD
49 at finite density using Lattice QCD. Although many efforts have been put into
50 solving the complex phase problem of QCD (see e.g. \cite{reviews}), the final goal
51 has not been achieved yet.
53 For some models or QCD in limiting cases, it is possible to deal with the complex phase
54 problem (e.g. \cite{solve-sign-problem}). Among the different techniques, we use the dual representation,
55 which has been shown to be a very powerful method that can solve the complex
56 phase problem of different models \cite{dual} without making any approximation of the partition sum.
57 In the following we present another example where the dual representation can be applied successfully.
58 We consider a compact U(1) gauge field coupled with two complex scalar fields with opposite charge \cite{prl}.
59 We explore the full phase diagram as a function of the inverse gauge coupling and the mass parameter,
60 and present some preliminary results at finite $\mu$.
62 After mapping the degrees of freedom of the system to its dual variables, the weight in the
63 partition sum is positive and real and usual Monte Carlo techniques can be applied. However,
64 the dual variables, links and plaquettes for this model, are subject to non-trivial constraints.
65 Therefore one has to choose a proper algorithm in order to sample the system efficiently. In our case, we have
66 used two different Monte Carlo algorithms: A local update algorithm (LMA) \cite{z3} and an extension \cite{swa} of the
67 Prokof'ev Svistunov worm algorithm \cite{worm}. Here we present
68 some technical comparison of both algorithms in addition to the physics of the model.
71 \section{Two-flavored scalar electrodynamics}
74 We here study two-flavored scalar electrodynamics, which is a model of two flavors of oppositely charged complex fields $\phi_x, \chi_x \in \mathds{C}$ living on the
75 sites $x$ and interacting via the gauge fields $U_{x,\sigma} \in$ U(1) sitting on the links. We use 4-d euclidean lattices of size $V_4 = N_s^3 \times N_t$ with periodic
76 boundary conditions for all directions. The lattice spacing is set to 1, i.e., all dimensionful quantities
77 are in units of the lattice spacing. Scale setting can be implemented as in any other lattice field theory
78 and issues concerning the continuum behavior are, e.g., discussed in \cite{LuWe}.
79 We write the action as the sum,
80 $S = S_U + S_\phi + S_\chi$, where $S_U$ is the gauge action and $S_\phi$ and $S_\chi$ are the actions for the two scalars.
81 For the gauge action we use
84 S_U \; = \; - \beta \, \sum_x \sum_{\sigma < \tau} \mbox{Re} \; U_{x,\sigma} U_{x+\widehat{\sigma}, \tau}
85 U_{x+\widehat{\tau},\sigma}^\star U_{x,\tau}^\star \; .
88 The sum runs over all plaquettes, $\widehat{\sigma}$ and $\widehat{\tau}$ denote the unit vectors in $\sigma$- and
89 $\tau$-direction and the asterisk is used for complex conjugation.
90 The action for the field $\phi$ is
93 = \! \sum_x \!\Big( M_\phi^2 \, |\phi_x|^2 + \lambda_\phi |\phi_x|^4 -
94 \label{matteraction} \\
95 && \sum_{\nu = 1}^4 \!
96 \big[ e^{-\mu_\phi \delta_{\nu, 4} } \, \phi_x^\star \, U_{x,\nu} \,\phi_{x+\widehat{\nu}}
98 e^{\mu_\phi \delta_{\nu, 4}} \, \phi_x^\star \,
99 U_{x-\widehat{\nu}, \nu}^\star \, \phi_{x-\widehat{\nu}} \big] \! \Big) .
102 By $M_\phi^2$ we denote the combination $8 + m_\phi^2$, where $m_\phi$ is the bare mass
103 parameter of the field $\phi$ and $\mu_\phi$ is the chemical potential, which favors forward
104 hopping in time-direction (= 4-direction). The coupling for the quartic term is denoted as
105 $\lambda_\phi$. The action for the field $\chi$ has the same form as
106 (\ref{matteraction}) but with complex conjugate link variables $U_{x,\nu}$ such that $\chi$ has
107 opposite charge. $M_\chi^2$, $\mu_\chi$ and $\lambda_\chi$ are used for the parameters of $\chi$.
109 The partition sum $Z = \int D[U] D[\phi,\chi] e^{-S_U - S_\chi - S_\phi}$ is obtained by
110 integrating the Boltzmann factor over all field configurations. The measures are products over
111 the measures for each individual degree of freedom.
113 Note that for $\mu_\phi \neq 0$ (\ref{matteraction}) is complex, i.e., in the
114 conventional form the theory has a complex action problem.
119 {\bf Dual representation:} A detailed derivation of the dual representation for the 1-flavor
120 model is given in \cite{DeGaSch1} and the generalization to two flavors is straightforward.
122 for the dual representation of the partition sum for the gauge-Higgs model with two flavors is
124 \hspace*{-3mm} Z = \!\!\!\!\!\! \sum_{\{p,j,\overline{j},l,\overline{l} \}} \!\!\!\!\!\! {\cal C}_g[p,j,l] \; {\cal C}_s [j] \; {\cal C}_s [l] \; {\cal W}_U[p]
125 \; {\cal W}_\phi \big[j,\overline{j}\,\big] \, {\cal W}_\chi \big[l,\overline{l}\,\big] .
128 The sum runs over all configurations of the dual variables: The occupation numbers
129 $p_{x,\sigma\tau} \in \mathds{Z}$ assigned to the plaquettes of the lattice and the flux variables $j_{x,\nu}, l_{x,\nu} \in \mathds{Z}$ and
130 $\overline{j}_{x,\nu}, \overline{l}_{x,\nu} \in \mathds{N}_0$ living on the links. The flux variables $j$ and $l$ are subject
131 to the constraints ${\cal C}_s$ (here $\delta(n)$ denotes the Kronecker delta $\delta_{n,0}$ and $\partial_\nu f_x \equiv
132 f_x - f_{x-\widehat{\nu}}$)
134 {\cal C}_s [j] \, = \, \prod_x \delta \! \left( \sum_\nu \partial_\nu j_{x,\nu} \right) , \;
137 which enforce the conservation of $j$-flux and of $l$-flux at each site of the lattice.
140 {\cal C}_g [p,j,l] \! =\! \prod_{x,\nu} \! \delta \Bigg( \!\sum_{\nu < \alpha}\! \partial_\nu p_{x,\nu\alpha}
141 - \!\sum_{\alpha<\nu}\! \partial_\nu p_{x,\alpha\nu} + j_{x,\nu} - l_{x,\nu} \! \Bigg)\! ,
144 connects the plaquette occupation numbers $p$ with the $j$- and $l$-variables.
145 At every link it enforces the combined flux of the plaquette occupation
146 numbers plus the difference of $j$- and $l$-flux residing on that link to vanish.
148 The constraints (\ref{loopconstU1}) and (\ref{plaqconstU1}) restrict the admissible
149 flux and plaquette occupation numbers giving rise to an interesting geometrical
150 interpretation: The $j$- and $l$-fluxes form closed oriented loops made of links. The integers
151 $j_{x,\nu}$ and $l_{x,\nu}$ determine how often a link is run through by loop segments, with negative
152 numbers indicating net flux in the negative direction. The flux conservation
153 (\ref{loopconstU1}) ensures that only closed loops appear. Similarly, the constraint
154 (\ref{plaqconstU1}) for the plaquette occupation numbers can be seen as a continuity
155 condition for surfaces made of plaquettes. The surfaces are either closed
156 surfaces without boundaries or open surfaces bounded by $j$- or $l$-flux.
158 The configurations of plaquette occupation numbers and fluxes in (\ref{Zfinal}) come with
161 {\cal W}_U[p] & = & \!\! \! \prod_{x,\sigma < \tau} \! \! \!
162 I_{p_{x,\sigma\tau}}(\beta) \, ,
164 {\cal W}_\phi \big[j,\overline{j}\big] & = &
165 \prod_{x,\nu}\! \frac{1}{(|j_{x,\nu}|\! +\! \overline{j}_{x,\nu})! \,
166 \overline{j}_{x,\nu}!}
167 \prod_x e^{-\mu j_{x,4}} P_\phi \left( f_x \right) ,
170 with $f_x = \sum_\nu\!\big[ |j_{x,\nu}|\!+\! |j_{x-\widehat{\nu},\nu}| \!+\!
171 2\overline{j}_{x,\nu}\! +\! 2\overline{j}_{x-\widehat{\nu},\nu} \big]$ which is an even number. The $I_p(\beta)$
172 in the weights ${\cal W}_U$ are the modified Bessel functions and the $P_\phi (2n)$ in
173 ${\cal W}_\phi$ are the integrals $ P_\phi (2n) = \int_0^\infty dr \, r^{2n+1}
174 \, e^{-M_\phi^2\, r^2 - \lambda_\phi r^4} = \sqrt{\pi/16 \lambda} \, (-\partial/\partial M^2)^n \;
175 e^{M^4 / 4 \lambda} [1- erf(M^2/2\sqrt{\lambda})]$, which we evaluate numerically and
176 pre-store for the Monte Carlo. The weight factors $ {\cal
177 W}_\chi$ are the same as the $ {\cal W}_\phi$, only the parameters $M_\phi^2$,
178 $\lambda_\phi$, $\mu_\phi$ are replaced by $M_\chi^2$, $\lambda_\chi$, $\mu_\chi$. All
179 weight factors are real and positive. The partition sum (\ref{Zfinal}) thus is
180 accessible to Monte Carlo techniques, using the plaquette occupation numbers and the
181 flux variables as the new degrees of freedom.
184 \section{Monte Carlo simulation}
187 Because the dual variables are subject to non-trivial constraints, they cannot be modified randomly during the update.
188 A straight forward way to sample the system is to change allowed surfaces.
189 Thus we choose the smallest possible structures in order to
190 increase the acceptance rate. This algorithm is called local update
191 (LMA) and was used in \cite{z3,swa,prl}. Another possibility is to use an extension of the worm
192 algorithm \cite{worm}, the so called surface worm algorithm \cite{swa}. For this model we use both algorithms and
193 assess their performance.
195 \subsection{Local update algorithm}
196 Let us begin by describing the LMA. It consists of the following updates:
199 \item A sweep for each unconstrained variable $\overline{l}$ and $\overline{j}$
200 rising or lowering their occupation number by one unit.
203 \item ``Plaquette update'':
204 It consists of increasing or decreasing a plaquette occupation number
206 the link fluxes (either $l_{x,\sigma}$ or $j_{x,\sigma}$) at the edges of $p_{x,\nu\rho}$ by $\pm 1$ as
207 illustrated in Fig.~\ref{plaquette}. The change of $p_{x, \nu \rho}$
208 by $\pm 1$ is indicated by the signs $+$ or $-$, while the flux variables $l$($j$) are denoted by the red(blue) lines
209 and we use a dashed line to indicate a decrease by $-1$ and a full line for an increase by $+1$.
212 \item ``Winding loop update'':
213 It consists of increasing or decreasing the occupation number of both link variables $l$ and $j$ by
214 one unit along a winding loop in any of the 4 directions. This update is very important because the winding loops
215 in time direction are the only objects that couple to the chemical potential.
218 \item ``Cube update'': The plaquettes of 3-cubes
219 of our 4d lattice are changed according to one of the two patterns illustrated in
221 Although the plaquette and winding loop update are enough to satisfy ergodicity,
222 the cube update helps for decorrelation in the region of
223 parameters where the system is dominated by closed surfaces, i.e., the link
224 acceptance rate is small.
227 A full sweep consists of updating all links, plaquettes, 3-cubes and winding loops on the lattice,
228 offering one of the changes mentioned above and accepting them with the Metropolis
229 probability computed from the local weight factors.
233 \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,clip]{pics/plaquettes}
236 \caption{Plaquette update: A plaquette occupation number is changed by $+1$ or
237 $-1$ and the links $l$ (red) or $j$ (blue) of the plaquette are changed simultaneously. The
238 full line indicates an increase by +1 and a dashed line a decrease by $-1$.
239 The directions $1 \le \nu_1 < \nu_2 \le 4$
240 indicate the plane of the plaquette.} \label{plaquette}
246 \includegraphics[width=0.7\textwidth,clip]{pics/cubes}
249 \caption{Cube update: Here we show the changes in the plaquette occupation numbers.
250 The edges of the 3-cube are parallel to
251 the directions $1 \leq \nu_1 < \nu_2 < \nu_3 \leq 4$.} \label{cube}
255 \subsection{Worm algorithm}
257 Instead of the plaquette and cube updates we can use the worm algorithm.
258 Here we will shortly describe the SWA (see \cite{swa} for a detailed description).
260 The SWA is constructed by breaking up the smallest update, i.e., the plaquette update
261 into smaller building blocks called ``segments''
262 (examples are shown in Fig.~\ref{segments}) used to build larger surfaces
263 on which the flux and plaquette variables are changed.
264 In the SWA the constraints are temporarily violated at a link
265 $L_V$, the head of the worm, and the two sites at its endpoints.
266 The admissible configurations are produced using 3 steps:
268 \item The worm starts by changing either the $l$ or $j$ flux by $\pm 1$ at
269 a randomly chosen link (step 1 in Fig.~\ref{worm}, a worm for $l$ fluxes starts).
270 \item The first link becomes the head of the worm $L_V$.
271 The defect at $L_V$ is then propagated through the lattice by
272 attaching segments of the same kind of flux as the first segment,
273 which are chosen in such a way that the constraints are always
274 obeyed (step 2 in Fig.~\ref{worm}).
275 \item The defect is propagated through the lattice until the worm decides to
276 end with the insertion of another unit of link flux at $L_V$ (step 3 in Fig.~\ref{worm}).
279 A full sweep consists of $V_4$ worms with the $l$ fluxes and $V_4$ worms with the $j$ fluxes,
280 plus a sweep of the unconstrained
281 variables $\overline{l}$ and $\overline{j}$,
282 and a sweep of winding loops (as explained for the LMA).
286 \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,clip]{pics/segments}
289 \caption{Examples of segments for the links $l$ (lhs.) and $j$ (rhs.)
290 in the $\nu_1$-$\nu_2$-plane ($\nu_1 < \nu_2$).
291 The plaquette occupation numbers are changed as indicated by the signs.
292 The full (dashed) links are changed by $+1$ ($-1$). The empty link shows
293 where the segment is attached to the worm and the dotted link is the new position of the link
294 $L_V$ where the constraints are violated.} \label{segments}
300 \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,clip]{pics/worm}
303 \caption{Illustration of the worm algorithm. See text for an explanation.} \label{worm}
311 In this section we describe the numerical analysis. We first show the assessment of both algorithms
312 and then the physics of the model. In both cases we use thermodynamical observables and their fluctuations.
313 We study in particular three observables: The first and second derivatives with respect to the inverse
314 gauge coupling $\beta$, i.e., the plaquette expectation value and its susceptibility,
317 \langle U \rangle = \frac{1}{6 N_s^3 N_t}\frac{\partial}{\partial \beta} \ln\ Z\quad , \quad
318 \chi_{U} = \frac{1}{6 N_s^3 N_t}\frac{\partial^2}{\partial \beta^2} \ln\ Z\ .
321 \noindent We also consider the particle number density $n$
322 and its susceptibility which are the derivatives
323 with respect to the chemical potential,
326 n = \frac{1}{N_s^3 N_t}\frac{\partial}{\partial \mu} \ln\ Z\quad , \quad
327 \chi_{n} = \frac{1}{N_s^3 N_t}\frac{\partial^2}{\partial \mu^2} \ln\ Z\ .
330 \noindent Finally, we analyze the derivatives with respect to $M^2$,
333 \langle |\phi|^2 \rangle = \frac{1}{N_s^3 N_t}\frac{\partial}{\partial M^2} \ln\ Z\quad , \quad
334 \chi_{|\phi|^2} = \frac{1}{N_s^3 N_t}\frac{\partial^2}{\partial (M^2)^2} \ln\ Z\ .
337 \subsection{Algorithm assessment}
339 For the comparison of both algorithms we considered the U(1) gauge-Higgs model coupled
340 with two (as described above) and with only one scalar field \cite{swa}.
341 First we checked the correctness of the SWA comparing the results for different
342 lattices sizes and parameters. Examples for the one flavor model are shown in \cite{swa}.
343 Fig.~\ref{obs} shows two observables for the two flavor case.
344 The figure on the top shows
345 $\langle |\phi|^2 \rangle$ (lhs.) and its susceptibility (rhs.) as a function of $\mu$
346 at $\beta = 0.85$ and $M^2 = 5.325$ on a lattice of size $12^3 \times 60$. This point is located
347 in the Higgs phase and does not show any phase transition. The plot on the bottom shows
348 the particle number $n$ (lhs.) and its susceptibility (rhs.) as a function of $\mu$
349 for $\beta = 0.75$ and $M^2 = 5.73$ on a lattice of volume $12^3 \times 60$. This plot shows
350 the transition from the confining phase to the Higgs phase.
351 We observe very good agreement between both algorithms.
355 \hbox{\includegraphics[width=\textwidth,clip]{pics/aphi}}
356 \hbox{\hspace{4mm}\includegraphics[width=0.97\textwidth,clip]{pics/bn}}
359 \caption{Observables as a function of $\mu$ for different parameters on a $12^3 \times 60$ lattice.
360 We compare results from the SWA (circles) and the LMA (triangles).} \label{obs}
365 In order to obtain a measure of the computational effort, we compared the normalized
366 autocorrelation time $\overline{\tau}$ as defined in \cite{swa} of the SWA and LMA for
367 the one flavored model for different volumes and parameters. We concluded that,
368 the SWA outperforms the local update near a phase transition and if
369 the acceptance rate of the constrained link variable is not very low (eg. lhs. of Fig.~\ref{auto}).
370 On the other hand, when the constrained links have a very low acceptance rate
371 the worm algorithm has difficulties to efficiently sample the
372 system because it modifies the link occupation number in every move, while the LMA has a sweep with only
373 closed surfaces. The plot on the rhs. of Fig.~\ref{auto} shows how $\overline{\tau}$ for
374 $U$ is larger for the SWA than for the LMA. But this can be overcome by offering
375 a sweep of cube updates.
379 \includegraphics[width=\textwidth,clip]{pics/u2}
382 \caption{Normalized autocorrelation times $\overline{\tau}$ for 2 different set
383 of parameters. Left: parameters close to a first order phase transition.
384 Right: low acceptance rate of the variable $l$. Both simulations correspond
385 to a $16^4$ lattice. Data taken from \cite{swa}.} \label{auto}
390 One of the main results of these studies so far and already published in \cite{prl} is the full phase diagram of the considered model in the $\beta$-$M^2$ plane at $\mu=0$ and some selected chemical potential driven phase transitions of the measured observables. For the sake of completeness we here again want to show the obtained phase diagram, but as a proceedings-extra also present some plots which show the shifting of the phase-boundaries at $\mu \neq 0$ and measurements of the dual occupation numbers.
392 \subsubsection*{Phase-diagram at $\mu=0$}
394 We studied the different transition lines in Fig.~\ref{phasediagram} using finite size analysis of the measured observables $\langle U \rangle$ and $\langle |\phi|^2 \rangle$ and the corresponding susceptibilities, finding that the phase boundary separating Higgs- and
395 confining phase is strong first order, the line separating confining- and Coulomb phase is of weak
396 first order, and the boundary between Coulomb- and Higgs phase is a continuous transition.
397 Our results for the $\mu = 0$ phase diagram are in qualitative
398 agreement with the conventional results for related
403 \includegraphics[width=75mm,clip]{pics/phasediagram}
404 \caption{Phase diagram in the $\beta$-$M^2$ plane at $\mu = 0$. We show
405 the phase boundaries determined from the maxima of the susceptibilities $\chi_U$ and $\chi_{\phi}$ and the
406 inflection points of $\chi_n$.}
410 \subsubsection*{Phase-boundaries at $\mu \neq 0$}
412 In Fig.~\ref{muphases} we plot the observables $\langle U \rangle$, $\langle |\phi|^2 \rangle$, $\langle n \rangle$ as function of $\beta$ and $M^2$ for four different values of the chemical potential $\mu=0,0.5,1,1.5$.
415 The phase-transition from the confining phase to the Coulomb phase shown in Fig.~\ref{phasediagram} is characterized by $\langle U \rangle$ growing larger across the transition but no significant changes in the other observables, which is the reason why the confinement-Coulomb transition can only be seen in the $\langle U \rangle$-plots.
416 For all observables it can be seen that the phase-boundaries in general become more pronounced at higher chemical potential and for the Higgs-Coulomb transition the transition type may even change from crossover to first order. Still, the shown results have to be considered preliminary and more detailed studies will be necessary to draw final conclusions.
420 \includegraphics[width=130mm,clip]{pics/muphases}
421 \caption{We show the observables $\langle U \rangle$, $\langle |\phi|^2 \rangle$, $\langle n \rangle$ as function of $\beta$ and $M^2$ for different $\mu = 0,0.5,1,1.5$. It can be seen how the phase boundaries change with increasing chemical potential.}
425 \subsubsection*{Dual occupation numbers}
427 The dual reformulation of a problem makes it possible to look at the same physics from a different perspective by studying the dynamics of the dual degrees of freedom instead of the conventional ones. This being a feature we find especially exciting about rewriting to dual variables, we here want to present an example.
430 In Fig.~\ref{occutrans_plaq} we plot the plaquette expectation value $\langle U \rangle$ and the corresponding susceptibility $\chi_U$ as function of the chemical potential, for two different volumes $12^3\times60$ and $16^3\times60$. We see that for the larger volume the transition is shifted slightly towards lower chemical potential, but the volume dependence seems to be reasonably small. The parameters $\beta$ and $M^2$ are fixed to $\beta=0.75$ and $M^2=5.73$. Increasing the chemical potential takes us from the confining- to the Higgs-phase where we cross the phase boundary at some critical value of $\mu$, which is $\mu\simeq2.65$ for the larger and $\mu\simeq2.7$ for the smaller lattice, telling us that the Higgs phase is tilted towards the confining phase in $\mu$-direction. Below the critical value of the chemical potential both
431 $\langle U \rangle$ and $\chi_U$ are independent of $\mu$, which is characteristic for a Silverblaze type transition \cite{cohen}.
434 Then in Fig.~\ref{occutrans} we show the occupation numbers of all dual link variables $\bar{j}$, $\bar{l}$, $j$, $l$ and dual plaquette variables $p$ just below (top) and above (bottom) the critical chemical potential $\mu_c$. Here blue links/plaquettes depict positive occupation numbers, green links/plaquettes depict negative occupation numbers and links/plaquettes with $0$-occupation are spared out. It can be seen that below $\mu_c$ links and plaquettes are hardly occupied, while above $\mu_c$ they are highly occupied. In that sense the Silverblaze transition shown in Fig.~\ref{occutrans_plaq} can be understood as condensation phenomenon, which is a new perspective on the underlying physics we gained from the dual reformulation of the problem.
439 \includegraphics[width=130mm,clip]{pics/occutrans_plaq}
440 \caption{We here show the plaquette expectation value $\langle U \rangle$ and the corresponding suscpetibility $\chi_U$ as function of the chemical potential, for two different volumes $12^3\times60$ and $16^3\times60$.}
441 \label{occutrans_plaq}
446 \includegraphics[width=130mm,clip]{pics/occutrans}
447 \caption{Dual link occupation numbers $\bar{j}$, $\bar{l}$, $j$, $l$ and dual plaquette occupation numbers $p$ just below (top) and above (bottom) the transition from the confining- to the Higgs-phase shown in the previous plot.}
451 \section*{Acknowledgments}
454 We thank Hans Gerd Evertz
455 for numerous discussions that helped to shape this project and for
456 providing us with the software to compute the autocorrelation times.
457 This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund,
458 FWF, DK {\it Hadrons in Vacuum, Nuclei, and Stars} (FWF DK W1203-N16). Y.~Delgado is supported by
459 the Research Executive Agency (REA) of the European Union
460 under Grant Agreement number PITN-GA-2009-238353 (ITN STRONGnet), HP2 and TRR 55.
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