Related papers: Center Vortices, Area Law and the Catenary Solutio…
The center vortex model for the infrared sector of Yang-Mills theory, previously studied for the SU(2) gauge group, is extended to SU(3). This model is based on the assumption that vortex world-surfaces can be viewed as random surfaces in…
We present a finite energy topological Z(2) vortex solution in a 2+1 dimensional SO(3) gauge field theory minimally coupled to a matrix valued Higgs field. The vortex carries a Z(2) magnetic charge and obeys a modulo two addition property.…
A rectangular Wilson loop with sides parallel to space and time directions is perturbatively evaluated in two light-cone gauge formulations of Yang-Mills theory in 1+1 dimensions, with ``instantaneous'' and ``causal'' interactions between…
The center vortex model, capable of explaining confinement and chiral symmetry breaking, has been plagued by the lattice equivalent of Gribov copies: different maxima of the gauge functional lead to different predictions of the string…
We offer a physicists' proof that center-vortex theory requires the area in the Wilson-loop area law to involve an extremal area. Area-law dynamics is determined by integrating over Wilson loops only, not over surface fluctuations for a…
A center vortex model for the infrared sector of SU(4) Yang-Mills theory is constructed such as to reproduce both the ratio between the zero-temperature quark and diquark string tensions known from lattice Yang-Mills theory, as well as the…
The uniquess of the effective actions describing 4D SU(2) and SU(3) continuum, infinite-volume Yang-Mills thermodynamics in their deconfining and preconfining phases is made explicit. Subsequently, the spatial string tension is computed in…
A random vortex world-surface model for the infrared sector of SU(4) Yang-Mills theory is constructed, focusing on the confinement properties and the behavior at the deconfinement phase transition. Although the corresponding data from…
We study structure constants of local operators inserted on the Wilson loop in ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory. We compute the structure constants in the SU(2) sector at tree level using the correspondence between operators on the…
Lattice simulations and theoretical analyses consistently identify center vortices and monopoles as key nonperturbative configurations in Yang-Mills theory. In the continuum, the effective representation of mixed oriented and nonoriented…
We extend the parameter regimes for which area law is proven for pure $\mathrm{U}(N)$ lattice Yang-Mills theories, in particular when $N$ is large. This improves on a classical result of Osterwalder-Seiler from 1978. To do so, we view the…
We study double-winding Wilson loops in $SU(N)$ lattice Yang-Mills gauge theory by using both strong coupling expansions and numerical simulations. First, we examine how the area law falloff of a ``coplanar'' double-winding Wilson loop…
We investigate elliptical Wilson loops in ${\cal N}=4$ Super Yang--Mills theory at weak and strong coupling for small values of the eccentricity. We obtain analytical results for the vacuum expectation value of the Wilson loop in the form…
We propose to use the different kinds of vacua of the gauge theories coupled to matter as a laboratory to test confinement ideas of pure Yang-Mills theories. In particular, the very poor overlap of the Wilson loop with the broken string…
We prove that Wilson loop expectation values for arbitrary simple closed contours obey an area law up to second order in perturbative two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. Our analysis occurs within a general family of axial-like gauges, which…
We explicitly show the area law behavior of a circular Wilson loop in confining theories from supergravity. We calculate the correlator of two Wilson loops from supergravity in confining backgrounds. We find that it is dominated by an…
We study string quantum corrections to the ratio of latitude and circular Wilson loops in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory at strong coupling. Conformal gauge for the corresponding minimal surface in AdS(5)xS(5) is singular and we show that an…
Topological confinement by center vortices does not immediately explain either a minimum-area law for non-planar Wilson loops or the L\"uscher term. I conjecture that both a minimal-area law and a L\"uscher term arise in a confinement model…
In this talk, we review some recent results of the center vortex model for the infrared sector of SU(3) Yang-Mills theory. Particular emphasis is put on the order of the finite-temperature deconfining phase transition and the geometrical…
We present a variety of numerical data supporting the Center Vortex theory of confinement. A method is introduced for identifying the location of center vortices, in thermalized gauge-field configurations generated by lattice Monte Carlo.…