Vortex structure of the vacuum and confinement

TL;DR

The paper discusses numerical and analytical evidence that thick vortices condense in the vacuum, which strongly supports the mechanism of confinement in quantum field theories.

Contribution

It provides new numerical results on vortex free energy and outlines an analytical approach to understanding vortex condensation and confinement.

Findings

Thick vortices condense in the vacuum at large beta.

Vortex free energy approaches unity for thick vortices.

Condensation of vortices implies confinement.

Abstract

We discuss the recently published numerical computations of the vortex free energy. They dramatically demonstrate that the excitation probability for a sufficiently thick vortex approaches unity at large beta, i.e. that thick vortices `condense' in the vacuum. This is known to imply confinement. An analytical approach for exploring this phenomenon is also outlined.