SO(4), SO(3) and SU(2) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions: comparing glueball spectra and string tensions

We improve upon recent calculations of the low-lying `glueball' spectra of SO(3) and SO(4) lattice gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions, and compare the resulting continuum extrapolations with SU(2). We find that these are reasonably consistent, as are the SU(2) and SO(4) string tensions when these are corrected for the differing representations of the flux. All this indicates that the different global properties of these groups do not play a significant role in the low-lying physics.