Center flux correlation in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates the role of center vortices in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, showing their dominance in the low-momentum gluon propagator, their vanishing screening mass above the deconfinement transition, and their relation to confinement mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a method to isolate and analyze the center vortex part of the gauge field and demonstrates its significance in the low-momentum behavior and phase transition of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory.

Findings

Center vortex propagator dominates low-momentum gluon propagator

Screening mass of vortex field vanishes above critical temperature

Ghost propagator remains infrared finite, indicating coset fields are not involved in confinement

Abstract

By using the method of center projection the center vortex part of the gauge field is isolated and its propagator is evaluated in the center Landau gauge, which minimizes the open 3-dimensional Dirac volumes of non-trivial center links bounded by the closed 2-dimensional center vortex surfaces. The center field propagator is found to dominate the gluon propagator (in Landau gauge) in the low momentum regime and to give rise to an OPE correction to the latter of ${\sqrt{\sigma}}/{p^3}$.The screening mass of the center vortex field vanishes above the critical temperature of the deconfinement phase transition, which naturally explains the second order nature of this transition consistent with the vortex picture. Finally, the ghost propagator of maximal center gauge is found to be infrared finite and thus shows that the coset fields play no role for confinement.