Center vortex model for the infrared sector of Yang-Mills theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a vortex-based model for the infrared behavior of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, successfully capturing confinement, phase transition, topological susceptibility, and chiral properties consistent with lattice results.

Contribution

It presents a novel vortex surface model that quantitatively reproduces key nonperturbative phenomena of Yang-Mills theory, including confinement and topological effects.

Findings

Model describes confinement and deconfinement transition

Reproduces topological susceptibility accurately

Chiral condensate behavior aligns with lattice results

Abstract

A model for the infrared sector of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, based on magnetic vortices represented by (closed) random surfaces, is presented. The model quantitatively describes both confinement (including the finite-temperature transition to a deconfined phase) and the topological susceptibility of the Yang-Mills ensemble. A first (quenched) study of the spectrum of the Dirac operator furthermore yields a behavior for the chiral condensate which is compatible with results obtained in lattice gauge theory.