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Title	Lattice Simulations of Nonperturbative Quantum Field Theories
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Type	Thesis
Length	194 Pages
Area	Physics
Advisor	William Loinaz
Composed	2006
Summary	We give a brief pedagogical introduction to Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations of statistical systems and the basics of the phi^4 quantum field theory. We show how to treat phi^4 theory as a statistical system in Euclidean space and perform lattice simulations using both local and cluster Monte Carlo algorithms. We then present the details and results of simulations of phi^4 theory on the lattice in which we chart the phase transition line of the theory in two and four dimensions and calculate an accurate value of the continuum critical coupling constant in two dimensions. Finally we discuss lattice simulations that calculate the masses of phi^4 solitons in two dimensions, nonperturbative phenomena that result from the nonlinearity of the theory.