Center vortex model for nonperturbative strong interaction physics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a vortex-based model for SU(2) Yang-Mills theory that successfully reproduces key nonperturbative phenomena such as confinement, phase transition, topological susceptibility, and chiral symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It presents a novel vortex model that quantitatively captures multiple nonperturbative aspects of Yang-Mills theory, bridging the gap between topological and chiral properties.

Findings

Model reproduces confinement and deconfinement transition

Accurately predicts topological susceptibility

Chiral condensate behavior aligns with lattice results

Abstract

A model for the infrared sector of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, based on magnetic vortex degrees of freedom represented by (closed) random world-surfaces, is presented. The model quantitatively describes both the confinement properties (including the finite-temperature transition to a deconfined phase) and the topological susceptibility of the Yang-Mills ensemble. A (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.