Deconfinement phase transition in one-flavor QCD - art. no. 034504.

We present a study of the deconfinement phase transition of one-flavor QCD using the multiboson algorithm. The mass of the Wilson fermions relevant fo r this study is moderately large and the non-Hermitian multiboson method is a superior simulation algorithm. Finite-size scaling is studied on lattice s of size 8(3) X 4, 12(3) X 4, and 16(3) X 4. The behaviors of the peak of the Polyakov loop susceptibility, the deconfinement ratio, and the distribu tion of the norm of the Polyakov loop are all characteristic of a first-ord er phase transition for heavy quarks. As the quark mass decreases, the firs t-order transition gets weaker and turns into a crossover. To investigate f inite-size scaling on larger spatial lattices we use an effective action in the same universality class as QCD. This effective action is constructed b y replacing the fermionic determinant with the Polyakov loop identified as the most relevant Z(3)-symmetry-breaking term. Higher-order effects are inc orporated in an effective Z(3)-breaking field h, which couples to the Polya kov loop. Finite-size scaling determines the value of h where the first-ord er transition ends. Our analysis at the end point h,, indicates that the ef fective model and thus QCD are consistent with the universality class of th e three-dimensional Ising model. Matching the field strength at the end poi nt h(ep) to the kappa values used in the dynamical quark simulations we est imate the end point kappa(ep) of the first-order phase transition. We find kappa(ep) similar to 0.08 which corresponds to a quark mass of about 1.4 Ge V. [S0556-2821(99)05313-8].