Towards the Continuum Limit of Lattice Gauge Theory with Dynamical Fermions

Simulations of Su(3) lattice gauge theory with four species of light quarks show a large peak in the bulk specific heat near $\beta =\frac{6}{g^2}\approx 5.10$ separating strong and weak coupling. $〈\overline{\psi }\psi 〉$ satisfies asymptotic-freedom scaling for $\beta =\frac{6}{g^2}\gtrsim 5.10$ and $\frac{{〈\overline{\psi }\psi 〉}^{\frac{1}{3}}}{{\Lambda }_{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}}=(2.6\mathrm{}\pm 0.1){\left(\frac{{4\pi }^2\beta }{25}\right)}^{\frac{4}{25}}$ ($\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ denotes the modified minimal-subtraction scheme). Finite-temperature simulations on a 6 × ${10}^3$ tice show a smooth but rapid crossover at $\frac{T}{{\Lambda }_{\overline{\mathrm{MS}}}}=2.14\mathrm{}\pm 0.10$. We find no evidence for metastable states.