Study of the Emergence of a Gluon Mass Scale from Center Vortices Using a Wave-Functional Formalism

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how center vortices in Yang-Mills theory lead to a gauge-invariant massive-like behavior of field correlators, providing insight into the nonperturbative origin of a gluon mass scale.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework using a wave-functional formalism to compute field correlators from center vortices, revealing the emergence of a massive-like scale.

Findings

Massive-like gauge-invariant field strength correlator observed

Nonoriented component of center vortices is crucial for confinement

Correlation functions exhibit infrared behavior consistent with a gluon mass scale

Abstract

Lattice simulations and theoretical analyses consistently identify center vortices and monopoles as key nonperturbative configurations in Yang-Mills theory. In the continuum, the effective representation of mixed oriented and nonoriented center vortices showed that these degrees of freedom generate a confining flux tube with $N$-ality. Independently, studies of correlation functions reveal an infrared behavior characterized by massivelike scales. In this Letter, field correlators are computed for the first time in a theoretical framework based on center vortices. Using an Abelian-projected vacuum wave functional peaked on the mixed ensemble, we show the emergence of a massivelike gauge-invariant field strength correlator. For this behavior, the nonoriented component in the center-vortex condensate turns out to be essential, as is also the case for producing the correct properties of confining flux tubes.