Effective Polyakov line action from strong lattice couplings to the deconfinement transition.

We calculate the effective Polyakov line action corresponding to SU(2) lattice gauge theory on a 163 X 4 lattice via the "relative weights" method. We consider a variety of lattice couplings, ranging from β = 1.2 in the strong-coupling domain to β = 2.3 at the deconfinement transition, in order to study how the effective action evolves with β. Comparison of Polyakov line correlators computed in the effective theory and the underlying gauge theory is used to test the validity of the effective action for β > 1.4, while for β = 1.2,1.4 we can compare our effective action to the one obtained from a low-order strong-coupling expansion. Very good agreement is found at all couplings. We find that the effective action is given by a simple expression bilinear in the Polyakov lines. The range of the bilinear term, away from strong coupling, grows rapidly in lattice units as β increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]