The critical exponent of deconfinement in SU(2) gauge theory

We calculate the average thermal Wilson loop L- in finite temperature SU(2) gauge theory, using Monte Carlo simulation on a 103 × 4 lattice. As the temperature T approaches the deconfinement point Tc from above, we expect L-~(T-Tc)β with β≈ 0.33, if the critical behaviour of SU(2) gauge theory is the same as that of Z2 spin theory. Our results give β = 0.32 ± 0.03, in very good agreement with this universality conjecture