A study of the 't Hooft loop in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of the 't Hooft loop in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory at various temperatures, revealing a phase transition characterized by a vanishing dual string tension at the critical temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a new numerical method to study the 't Hooft loop and characterizes its critical behavior in the deconfined phase of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory.

Findings

Spatial 't Hooft loop shows a dual string tension in the deconfined phase.

The dual string tension vanishes at the critical temperature with 3D Ising-like critical exponent.

The study provides insights into the phase transition in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory.

Abstract

We study the behaviour of the spatial and temporal 't Hooft loop at zero and finite temperature in the 4D SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, using a new numerical method. In the deconfined phase $T>T_c$, the spatial 't Hooft loop exhibits a dual string tension, which vanishes at $T_c$ with 3D Ising-like critical exponent.