Unveiling SU(3) Flux Tubes At Nonzero Temperature: Electric Fields and Magnetic Currents

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of SU(3) flux tubes at finite temperature, focusing on electric fields and magnetic currents, revealing how confinement properties change across the deconfinement transition.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurements of chromoelectric fields in flux tubes at nonzero temperature in SU(3) gauge theory, highlighting the transition from confinement to deconfinement.

Findings

Flux tube behavior is similar below the deconfinement temperature.

Field strength decreases with quark-antiquark separation above the transition.

Confining potential disappears above the deconfinement temperature.

Abstract

We report on the results of measuring the chromoelectric fields in a flux tube created by a static quark-antiquark pair in the finite-temperature SU(3) gauge theory. Below the deconfinement temperature the field behavior is similar to the zero-temperature case. Above the deconfinement temperature the field shape remains the same, but the field values drop when the distance between quark and antiquark increases, thus showing the disappearance of confining potential.