Thermal Monopole Condensation and Confinement in finite temperature Yang-Mills Theories

TL;DR

This paper explores how thermal Abelian monopoles in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory relate to confinement, showing monopole condensation occurs at the deconfinement transition and monopole mass decreases near this critical point.

Contribution

It provides evidence that monopole condensation is linked to the confinement transition and analyzes monopole mass behavior around the critical temperature in finite temperature Yang-Mills theories.

Findings

Multiple monopole wrappings increase near the transition, indicating condensation.

Monopole mass decreases and becomes comparable to the critical temperature at the transition.

Monopole properties change significantly as the deconfinement temperature is approached.

Abstract

We investigate the connection between Color Confinement and thermal Abelian monopoles populating the deconfined phase of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, by studying how the statistical properties of the monopole ensemble change as the confinement/deconfinement temperature is approached from above. In particular we study the distribution of monopole currents with multiple wrappings in the Euclidean time direction, corresponding to two or more particle permutations, and show that multiple wrappings increase as the deconfinement temperature is approached from above, in a way compatible with a condensation of such objects happening right at the deconfining transition. We also address the question of the thermal monopole mass, showing that different definitions give consistent results only around the transition, where the monopole mass goes down and becomes of the order of the critical temperature itself.