COLOR-DIELECTRIC GAUGE-THEORY ON A TRANSVERSE LATTICE

We investigate in some detail consequences of the effective color-diel ectric formulation of lattice gauge theory using the light-cone Hamilt onian formalism with a transverse lattice. As a quantitative test of t his approach, we have performed extensive analytic and numerical calcu lations for (2 + 1)-dimensional pure gauge theory in the large-N limit . Because of Eguchi-Kawai reduction, one effectively studies a (1 + 1) -dimensional gauge theory coupled to matter in the adjoint representat ion. We study the structure of coupling constant space for our effecti ve potential by comparing with results available from conventional Euc lidean lattice Monte Carlo simulations of this system. In particular, we calculate and measure the scaling behavior of the entire low-lying glueball spectrum. glueball wave functions, string tension, asymptotic density of states, and deconfining temperature. We employ a hybrid of discretized light-cone quantization and a wave-function basis in our calculations of the Light-cone Hamiltonian matrix elements, along with extrapolation in Tamm-Dancoff truncation, significantly reducing nume rical errors. Finally we discuss, in light of our results, what furthe r measurements and calculations could be made in order to systematical ly remove lattice spacing dependence from our effective potential a pr iori. [S0556-2821(97)00424-4].