  By exploiting the similarity between Bloch's theorem for electrons in
crystalline solids and the problem of Landau gauge-fixing in Yang-Mills theory
on a "replicated" lattice, one is able to obtain essentially infinite-volume
results from numerical simulations performed on a relatively small lattice.
This approach, proposed by D. Zwanziger in \cite{Zwanziger:1993dh}, corresponds
to taking the infinite-volume limit for Landau-gauge field configurations in
two steps: firstly for the gauge transformation alone, while keeping the
lattice volume finite, and secondly for the gauge-field configuration itself.
The solutions to the gauge-fixing condition are then given in terms of Bloch
waves. Applying the method to data from Monte Carlo simulations of pure SU(2)
gauge theory in two and three space-time dimensions, we are able to evaluate
the Landau-gauge gluon propagator for lattices of linear extent up to sixteen
times larger than that of the simulated lattice. The approach is reminiscent of
Fisher and Ruelle's construction of the thermodynamic limit in classical
statistical mechanics.
