The confined-deconfined interface tension, wetting, and the spectrum of the transfer matrix

Abstract The reduced tension σ cd of the interface between the confined and thedeconfined phase of SU (3) pure gauge theory is determined from numerical simulations of the first transfer matrix eigenvalues. At T c = 1/ L t we find σ cd = 0.139(4) T 2 c for L t = 2. The interfaces show universal behavior because the deconfined-deconfined interfaces are completely wet by the confined phase. The critical exponents of complete wetting follow from the analytic interface solutions of a Z (3)- symmetric Φ 4 model in three dimensions. We find numerical evidence that the confined-deconfined interface is rough.