A detailed study of the Abelian-projected SU(2) flux tube and its dual Ginzburg-Landau analysis

TL;DR

This paper investigates the structure of the Abelian-projected SU(2) flux tube using lattice gauge theory, emphasizing the importance of gauge fixing effects and comparing results with the dual Abelian Higgs model to understand the vacuum's superconducting type.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the Abelian-projected flux tube, accounting for Gribov copy effects and finite quark-antiquark distances, and relates lattice results to the dual Ginzburg-Landau model.

Findings

Flux tube profiles are consistent with the dual Abelian Higgs model.

The vacuum behaves as a weakly type-I dual superconductor.

Gauge fixing effects significantly influence monopole-related flux-tube features.

Abstract

The color-electric flux tube of Abelian-projected (AP) SU(2) lattice gauge theory in the maximally Abelian gauge (MAG) is revisited. It is shown that the lattice Gribov copy effect in the MAG is crucial for the monopole-related parts of the flux-tube profiles. Taking into account both the gauge fixing procedure and the effect of finite quark-antiquark distance properly, the scaling property of the flux-tube profile is confirmed. The quantitative relation between the measured AP flux tube and the flux-tube solution of the U(1) dual Abelian Higgs (DAH) model is also discussed. The fitting of the AP flux tube in terms of the DAH flux tube indicates that the vacuum can be classified as weakly type-I dual superconductor.