Gluon propagator on a centre-vortex background

TL;DR

This study examines how $SU(3)$ centre vortices influence the gluon propagator in Landau gauge, revealing their role in the short and long-range behavior of the propagator and their importance in QCD vacuum structure.

Contribution

It introduces a method to analyze the impact of centre vortices on the gluon propagator and explores how smoothing affects vortex-only configurations, advancing understanding of QCD vacuum topology.

Findings

Vortex removal shortens the gluon propagator at short range.

Vortex-only configurations exhibit long-range strength in the propagator.

Smoothing vortex-only configurations can recover the original propagator form.

Abstract

The impact of $SU(3)$ centre vortices on the gluon propagator in Landau gauge is investigated on original, vortex-removed and vortex-only lattice gauge field configurations. Vortex identification is found to partition the gluon propagator into short range strength on the vortex removed configurations and long range strength on the vortex only configurations. The effect of smoothing vortex-only configurations is also studied, and a regime for recovering the form of the smoothed original propagator from vortex-only configurations is introduced. The results reinforce the significance of centre vortices in a fundamental understanding of QCD vacuum structure.