Caloron correction to the effective potential in thermal gluodynamics

TL;DR

This paper investigates how calorons with non-trivial holonomy influence the effective potential in thermal gluodynamics, showing they contribute a linear term that maintains the stability of the center group minima.

Contribution

It demonstrates that calorons with non-trivial holonomy add a linear correction to the effective potential, preserving the stability of the center group minima in thermal gluodynamics.

Findings

Calorons contribute a linear term to the effective potential.

The stability of the center group minima is maintained.

Eigenvalues of the Wilson line remain clustered.

Abstract

The effective potential in thermal gluodynamics has stable minima in perturbation theory. There the Wilson line is center group valued and eigenvalues of the Wilson line stay clustered. Calorons with non-trivial holonomy contribute to one loop order a linear term in the holonomy. The sign is such that the center group minimum stays stable.