The transition to a layered phase in the anisotropic five-dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory

We extend to large lattices the work of a previous investigation of the phase diagram of the anisotropic five-dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills model using Monte Carlo simulations in the regime where the lattice spacing in the fifth dimension is larger than in the other four dimensions. We find a first order phase transition between the confining and deconfining phase at the anisotropic parameter point β4=2.60 which was previously claimed to be the critical point at which the order of the transition changes from first to second. We conclude that large lattices are required to establish the first order nature of this line of transitions and consequently that the scenario of dimensional reduction of the five-dimensional theory to a continuum four-dimensional theory via the existence of the so-called “layer phase” is unpromising.