Multiflavor QCD* on R_3 x S_1: Studying Transition From Abelian to Non-Abelian Confinement

TL;DR

This paper investigates how multiflavor QCD* theories on R_3 x S_1 transition between Abelian and non-Abelian confinement regimes, revealing phase transitions and the relationship with chiral symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of a phase transition in multiflavor QCD* theories related to confinement and chiral symmetry, extending understanding beyond one-flavor cases.

Findings

Existence of a mass gap and linear confinement at small S_1 radius.

Presence of a single phase transition associated with chiral symmetry breaking.

Conjecture linking chiral symmetry breaking scale with confinement transition scale.

Abstract

The center-stabilized multiflavor QCD* theories formulated on R_3 x S_1 exhibit both Abelian and non-Abelian confinement as a function of the S_1 radius, similar to the Seiberg-Witten theory as a function of the mass deformation parameter. For sufficiently small number of flavors and small r(S_1), we show occurence of a mass gap in gauge fluctuations, and linear confinement. This is a regime of confinement without continuous chiral symmetry breaking (\chi SB). Unlike one-flavor theories where there is no phase transition in r(S_1), the multiflavor theories possess a single phase transition associated with breaking of the continuous chiral symmetry. We conjecture that the scale of the \chi SB is parametrically tied up with the scale of Abelian to non-Abelian confinement transition.