Related papers: A random matrix-like model for the Polyakov loop a…
Transitions between centre sectors are related to confinement in pure Yang-Mills theories. We study the impact of these transitions in QCD-like theories for which centre symmetry is explicitly broken by the presence of matter. For low…
We present numerical results for the deconfinement phase transition in Sp(2) and Sp(3) Yang-Mills theories in (2+1)-D and (3+1)-D. We then make a conjecture on the order of this phase transition in Yang-Mills theories with general Lie…
Some time ago, Svetitsky and Yaffe have argued that -- if the deconfinement phase transition of a (d+1)-dimensional Yang-Mills theory with gauge group G is second order -- it should be in the universality class of a d-dimensional spin model…
Matrix models for the deconfining phase transition in $SU(N)$ gauge theories have been developed in recent years. With a few parameters, these models are able to reproduce the lattice results of the thermodynamic quantities in the…
Quantum Chromodynamics exhibits a hadronic confined phase at low to moderate temperatures and, at a critical temperature $T_C$, undergoes a transition to a deconfined phase known as the quark-gluon plasma. The nature of this deconfinement…
A model for the quantum effective description of the vacuum structure of thermalized SU(3) Yang-Mills theory is proposed. The model is based on Abelian projection leading to a Ginzburg-Landau theory for the magnetic sector. The possibility…
We study phase transitions in $SU(\infty)$ gauge theories at nonzero temperature using matrix models. Our basic assumption is that the effective potential is dominated by double trace terms for the Polyakov loops. As a function of the…
The center vortex model for the infrared sector of SU(3) Yang-Mills theory is reviewed. After discussing the physical foundations underlying the model, some technical aspects of its realisation are discussed. The confining properties of the…
We study SU(2) Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature in the framework of the functional renormalization group. We concentrate on the effective potential for the Polyakov loop which serves as an order parameter for confinement. In this…
We present results from numerical lattice calculations of SU(4) Yang-Mills theory. This work has two goals: to determine the order of the finite temperature deconfinement transition on an $N_t = 6$ lattice and to study the string tensions…
We study the bosonic matrix model obtained as the high-temperature limit of two-dimensional maximally supersymmetric SU($N$) Yang-Mills theory. So far, no consensus about the order of the deconfinement transition in this theory has been…
A hermitian one-matrix model with an even quartic potential exhibits a third-order phase transition when the cuts of the matrix model curve coalesce. We use the known solutions of this matrix model to compute effective superpotentials of an…
Linear confinement with Casimir scaling of the string tension in confining gauge theories is a consequence of a certain property of the Polyakov loop related to random matrices. This mechanism does not depend on the details of the theories…
Confinement remains one the most interesting and challenging nonperturbative phenomenon in non-Abelian gauge theories. Recent semiclassical (for SU(2)) and lattice (for QCD) studies have suggested that confinement arises from interactions…
This is a pedagogical introduction to the physics of confinement on $R^3 \times S^1$, using $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills with massive or massless adjoint fermions as the prime example; at the end, we also add fundamental flavours. The small-$S^1$…
The question whether the center vortex picture of the strongly interacting vacuum can encompass the infrared dynamics of both SU(2) as well as Sp(2) Yang-Mills theory is addressed. These two theories contain the same center vortex degrees…
We examine the finite-temperature deconfinement phase transition of (2+1)-dimensional SU(5) Yang-Mills theory via non-perturbative lattice simulations. Unsurprisingly, we find that the transition is of first order, however it appears to be…
We consider a dual representation of an effective three-dimensional Polyakov loop model for the SU(3) theory at nonzero real chemical potential. This representation is free of the sign problem and can be used for numeric Monte-Carlo…
We present a renormalization procedure for Polyakov loops which explicitly implements the fact that the renormalization constant depends only on the ultraviolet cutoff. Using this we study the renormalized Polyakov loops in all…
Basing on a semiclassical picture of dyons, we present a nonperturbative model of a pure Yang--Mills theory at any temperatures, for an arbitrary simple gauge group. We argue that at low temperatures dyons drive the Yang--Mills system for…