Related papers: Center Vortices, Area Law and the Catenary Solutio…
This thesis is concerned with the study of scattering amplitudes in four-dimensional conformal field theories, more particularly the N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory. We study this theory first at tree level by using twistor space techniques and…
We investigate the structure of center vortices in maximal center gauge of SU(2) lattice gauge theory at zero and finite temperature. In center projection the vortices (called P-vortices) form connected two dimensional surfaces on the dual…
Wilson loops provide the central gauge-invariant probe of confinement in lattice gauge theory. This survey reviews the statistical-mechanical formulation of lattice gauge ensembles, the strong-coupling and duality mechanisms behind area…
Inspired by recent lattice measurements, we determine the short-distance (a << r << 1/pi T) as well as large-frequency (1/a >> omega >> pi T) asymptotics of scalar (trace anomaly) and pseudoscalar (topological charge density) correlators at…
A four-dimensional analog of Chern-Simons theory produces integrable lattice models from Wilson lines and surface operators. We show that this theory describes a quasi-topological sector of maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in six…
A definition of the Pontryagin index for SU(2) center vortex world-surfaces composed of plaquettes on a hypercubic lattice is constructed. It is used to evaluate the topological susceptibility in a previously defined random surface model…
We study correlation functions of Wilson loops and local operators in a subsector of N=4 SYM which preserves two supercharges. Localization arguments allow to map the problem to a calculation in bosonic two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. In…
Motivated by the problem of understanding 3-point correlation functions of gauge-invariant operators in N =4 super Yang-Mills theory we consider correlators involving Wilson loops and a "light" operator with fixed quantum numbers. At…
We analyze the meson correlator in the spatial direction at finite temperature. To achieve fine resolution in the spatial direction, we use an anisotropic lattice with the standard Wilson plaquette gauge action and the $O(a)$ improved…
We study the behavior of the Wilson loop in the (5+1)-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with the presence of the solitonic object. Using the dual string description of the Yang-Mills theory that is given by the D1/D5 system, we…
In this work, we consider the London limit of the (2+1)D Georgi-Glashow model with dynamical quarks. Following Polyakov's monopole plasma approach and using dual methods to treat the relevant matter sector, we derive in a clear and…
The structure of center vortices is studied in SU(4) Yang-Mills theory for the first time to illuminate the interplay between elementary (center charge $\pm 1$) and doubly charged vortices. Unlike in SU(3), where charge $+2$ vortices are…
We exhibit the appropriate variables allowing the plus-minus (Z(2)) `reduction' of the Wilson loop operator which provides a direct measure of the thin, thick and `mixed' Z(2) topological, gauge-invariant vortices in SU(2) LGT. Simulations…
We report two probes of centre vortices in pure SU(2). First, we attempt to generate plaquette-size Z(2) vortices in a quasi-random way to compare the structure with those of projected centre vortices from the full theory; our prescription…
Previously, we proposed an infrared vacuum wave functional for $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory peaked at thin center vortices and showed that it yields an area law for the Wilson loop. In this work, we use this wave functional to calculate the…
We study a recently discovered family of 1/8-BPS supersymmetric Wilson loops in N=4 super Yang-Mills theory and their string theory duals. The operators are defined for arbitrary contours on a two-sphere in space-time, and they were…
Recent lattice calculations performed at zero temperature and in the maximal center gauge indicate that quark confinement can be understood in this gauge as due to fluctuations in the number of magnetic vortices piercing a given Wilson…
The properties of center vortices are discussed within continuum Yang-Mills theory. By starting from the lattice theory and carefully performing the continuum limit the gauge potential of center vortices is obtained and the continuum analog…
In this work, we analyzed a recent proposal to detect $SU(N)$ continuum Yang-Mills sectors labeled by center vortices, inspired by Laplacian-type center gauges in the lattice. Initially, after the introduction of appropriate external…
Wilson loops in the adjoint representation are evaluated on cooled lattices in SU(2) lattice gauge theory. It is found that the string tension of an adjoint Wilson loop vanishes, if the loop is evaluated in a sub-ensemble of configurations…