Vortices, Symmetry Breaking, and Temporary Confinement in SU(2) Gauge-Higgs Theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates vortex dynamics, symmetry breaking, and confinement in SU(2) gauge-Higgs theory, revealing that vortex mechanisms are not solely dependent on center symmetry and that the confining and Higgs phases are not sharply distinct.

Contribution

It demonstrates that vortex-related phenomena and phase transitions in SU(2) gauge-Higgs models are more nuanced, challenging traditional notions of confinement and Higgs phases.

Findings

Vortex removal eliminates the linear potential.

Center symmetry is not essential for vortex confinement.

Transition lines for vortex percolation and remnant symmetry breaking do not coincide.

Abstract

We further investigate center vortex percolation and Coulomb gauge remnant symmetry breaking in the SU(2) gauge-Higgs model. We show that string breaking is visible in Polyakov line correlators on the center projected lattice, that our usual numerical tests successfully relate P-vortices to center vortices, and that vortex removal removes the linear potential, as in the pure gauge theory. This data suggests that global center symmetry is not essential to the vortex confinement mechanism. But we also find that the line of vortex percolation-depercolation transitions, and the line of remnant symmetry breaking transitions, do not coincide in the SU(2)-Higgs phase diagram. This non-uniqueness of transition lines associated with non-local order parameters favors a straightforward interpretation of the Fradkin-Shenker theorem, namely: there is no unambiguous distinction, in the SU(2) gauge-Higgs models, between a "confining" phase and a Higgs phase.