Two phases of topologically massive compact U(1) theory

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Abstract
The mean-field-like gauge-invariant variational method formulated recently is applied to topologically massive QED in three dimensions. We find that the theory has a phase transition in the Chern-Simons coefficient n. The phase transition is of the Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless type and is triggered by the liberation of Polyakov monopoles, which for n≳8 are tightly bound into pairs. In our Hamiltonian approach this is seen as a similar behavior of the magnetic vortices, which are present in the ground state wave functional of the compact theory. For n≳8, the low energy behavior of the theory is the same as in the noncompact case. For nn1996 The American Physical Society.
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