Effects of gauge boson mass on chiral and deconfinement phase transitions in QED₃

Based on the experimental observation that there is a coexisting region between the antiferromagnetic (AF) and $\textit{d}$-wave superconducting ($\textit{d}$SC) phases, the influences of gauge boson mass $m_{a}$ on chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement phase transitions in QED$_{3}$ are investigated simultaneously within a unified framework, i.e., Dyson-Schwinger equations. The results show that the chiral symmetry restoration phase transition in the presence of the gauge boson mass $m_{a}$ is a typical second-order phase transition; the chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement phase transitions are coincident; the critical number of fermion flavors $N^{c}_{f}$ decreases as the gauge boson mass $m_{a}$ increases and there exists a boundary that separates the $N^{c}_{f}$-$m_{a}$ plane into chiral symmetry breaking/confinement region for ($N_{f}^{c}$, $m_{a}$) below the boundary and chiral symmetry restoration/deconfinement region for ($N_{f}^{c}$, $m_{a}$) above it.