Finite volume gauge theory partition functions in three dimensions

We determine the fermion mass dependence of Euclidean finite volume partition functions for three-dimensional QCD in the ?-regime directly from the effective field theory of the pseudo-Goldstone modes by using zero-dimensional non-linear s-models. New results are given for an arbitrary number of flavours in all three cases of complex, pseudo-real and real fermions, extending some previous considerations based on random matrix theory. They are used to describe the microscopic spectral correlation functions and smallest eigenvalue distributions of the QCD₃ Dirac operator, as well as the corresponding massive spectral sum rules. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.