Manifestations of magnetic vortices in equation of state of Yang-Mills plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates magnetic vortices in Yang-Mills theory using lattice simulations, revealing their significant impact on the thermodynamics of gluon plasma and suggesting a magnetic flux tube network in quark-gluon plasma.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed lattice study of magnetic vortices' thermodynamic effects in finite-temperature Yang-Mills theory, highlighting their role in plasma properties.

Findings

Magnetic vortices significantly influence gluon plasma thermodynamics.

Vortex contributions are negative in deconfinement phase and positive in confinement phase.

A developed vortex network may affect quark interactions in quark-gluon plasma.

Abstract

The vacuum of Yang-Mills theory contains singular stringlike objects identified with center (magnetic) vortices. Percolation of magnetic vortices is known to be responsible for the color confinement in the low-temperature phase of the theory. In our work we study properties of the vortices at finite temperature using lattice simulations of SU(2) gauge theory. We show that magnetic vortices provide a numerically large contribution to thermodynamic quantities of the gluon plasma in Yang-Mills theory. In particular, we observe that in the deconfinement phase at temperatures T_c < T < 3 T_c the magnetic component of the gluon plasma produces a negative (ghostlike) contribution to the anomaly of the energy-momentum tensor. In the confinement phase the vortex contribution is positive. The thermodynamical significance of the magnetic objects allows us to suggest that the quark-gluon plasma may contain a developed network of magnetic flux tubes. The existence of the vortex network may lead to observable effects in the quark-gluon plasma because the chromomagnetic field of the vortices should scatter and drag quarks.