The Stefan-Boltzmann law: SU(2) versus SO(3) lattice gauge theory

We investigate the high temperature limit of SU(2) and SO(3) lattice gauge theory, respectively. In particular, we study the Stefan-Boltzmann constant in both cases. As is well known, the Stefan-Boltzmann constant extracted from SU(2) lattice gauge theory by incorporating finite size effects is smaller than the continuum value which assumes three gluon degrees of freedom. On the other hand, the extrapolation of our SO(3) lattice data comes much closer to the continuum value. This rises the question whether SU(2) and SO(3) lattice gauge theories represent different quantum theories in the continuum limit.