DECONFINEMENT TRANSITION IN LARGE-N LATTICE GAUGE-THEORY

We study analytically the phase diagram of the pure SU(N) lattice gaug e theory at finite temperature, and we attempt to estimate the critica l deconfinement temperature. We apply large-hr techniques to the Wilso n and to the heat kernel action, and we study the resulting models bot h in the strong-coupling and in the weak-coupling limits. Using the he ar kernel action, we establish an interesting connection between the D ouglas-Kazakov phase transition of two-dimensional QCD and the deconfi ning transition in d dimensions. The analytic results obtained for the critical temperature compare well with Monte Carlo simulations of the full theory in (2 + 1) and in (3 + 1) dimensions.