Related papers: Vortices and confinement
We discuss the physical picture of thick vortices as the mechanism responsible for confinement at arbitrarily weak coupling in SU(2) gauge theory. By introducing appropriate variables on the lattice we distinguish between thin, thick and…
We consider the Wilson loop expectation in SU(2) lattice gauge theory in the presence of constraints. The constraints eliminate from the functional measure gauge field configurations whose physical interpretation is that of thick center…
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.…
Lattice simulations are presented showing the expectation of the fluctuation of the Wilson loop solely by elements of the center to fully reproduce the SU(3) heavy quark potential. The results are stable under smoothing, and point to thick…
The vortex theory which emerges from SU(2) lattice gauge theory by center projection is briefly reviewed. In this vortex picture, quark confinement is due to percolating (closed) vortices which are randomly linked to the Wilson loop. The…
We present a method for locating center vortices (``fluxons'') in thermalized lattice gauge field configurations. We find evidence, in lattice Monte Carlo simulations, that the asymptotic string tension of fundamental-representation Wilson…
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…
Wilson loops have been measured at strong coupling, $\beta=0.5$, on a $12^4$ lattice in a noncompact simulation of pure SU(2) in which random compact gauge transformations impose a kind of lattice gauge invariance. The Wilson loops suggest…
We present simulation results comparing the SU(3) heavy quark potential extracted from the full Wilson loop expectation to that extracted from the expectation of the Wilson loop fluctuation solely by elements of Z(3). The two potentials are…
In center vortex theory, beyond the simplest picture of confinement several conceptual problems arise that are the subject of this paper. Confinement arises through averaging of phase factors which are gauge-group center elements raised to…
We present the first measurement of the vortex free-energy order parameter at weak coupling for SU(2) in simulations employing multihistogram methods. The result shows that the excitation probability for a sufficiently thick vortex in the…
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…
We make various short points on the phenomenon of centre dominance in SU(2). The Z(2) dominance seen in Wilson loops is related to the loop distribution and to half-odd-integer representations of the group. The distributions also make it…
We discuss the recently published numerical computations of the vortex free energy. They dramatically demonstrate that the excitation probability for a sufficiently thick vortex approaches unity at large beta, i.e. that thick vortices…
The vortex contribution to the $k$-string tensions is computed for SU($N$) gauge theories. We deduce the surface densities needed to reproduce the sine scaling and the Casimir scaling formulae, recently obtained from numerical simulations…
We examine the manner in which a linear potential results from fluctuations due to vortices linked with the Wilson loop. Our discussion is based on exact relations and inequalities between the Wilson loop and the vortex and electric flux…
We calculate the variation with temperature of the vortex free energy in D=2+1 SU(2) lattice gauge theories. We do so both above and below the deconfining transition at T=Tc. We find that this quantity is zero at all T for large enough…
There has been substantial progress in understanding confinement in a class of four-dimensional SU(N) gauge theories using semiclassical methods. These models have one or more compact directions, and much of the analysis is based on the…
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…
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…