Hamiltonian SU(N) lattice gauge theories with exact vacuum states in 2+1 dimensions.

We investigate (2+1)-dimensional Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory using a class of Hamiltonians having exactly known vacuum states. These theories are shown to have a wide range of possible classical continuum limits which differ from that of the standard Kogut-Susskind Hamiltonian. This conclusion is at variance with some previously published results. We examine the quantum continuum behavior of these theories by both analytic and numerical methods including plaquette space integration and standard Monte Carlo techniques. String tension and variational estimates for the {ital J}{sup {ital P}{ital C}}=0{sup ++} glueball spectra are presented for SU(3). We find that in spite of the wide range of classical behavior predicted, these theories correspond to only two distinct quantum systems in the weak coupling limit. One of these quantum limits gives string tensions and glueball states which show scaling in weak coupling which agrees with the perturbative prediction for the (2+1)-dimensional problem.