First-order Phase Transition in Three-dimensional QED with Chern--Simons Term

We have studied the chiral phase transition in three-dimensional QED in the presence of a Chern--Simons term for the gauge field. There exists a phase where the chiral symmetry is broken dynamically and we have determined the critical line for this symmetry breaking as a function of the effective coupling and the strength of the additional Chern--Simons term. In the presence of a Chern--Simons term, the chiral phase transition turns out to be first order, in sharp contrast to the phase transition in pure three-dimensional QED.