Lattice study of anisotropic quantum electrodynamics in three dimensions

We present results from a Monte Carlo simulation of noncompact lattice QED in three dimensions on a 16(3) lattice in which an explicit anisotropy between x and y hopping terms has been introduced into the action. This formulation is inspired by recent formulations of anisotropic QED(3) as an effective theory of the non-superconducting portion of the cuprate phase diagram, with relativistic fermion degrees of freedom defined near the nodes of the gap function on the Fermi surface, the anisotropy encapsulating the different Fermi and Gap velocities at the node, and the massless photon degrees of freedom reproducing the dynamics of the phase disorder of the superconducting order parameter. Using a parameter set corresponding in the isotropic limit to broken chiral symmetry (in field theory language) or a spin density wave (in condensed matter physics language), our results show that the renormalized anisotropy, defined in terms of the ratio of correlation lengths of gauge invariant bound states in the x and y directions, exceeds the explicit anisotropy kappa introduced in the lattice action, implying in contrast to recent analytic results that anisotropy is a relevant deformation of QED(3). There also appears to be a chiral symmetry restoring phase transition at kappa(c)similar or equal to 4.5, implying that the pseudogap phase persists down to T=0 in the cuprate phase diagram.