London relation and fluxoid quantization for monopole currents in U(1) lattice gauge theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of monopole currents in U(1) lattice gauge theory, revealing an analogy to the Meissner effect and demonstrating fluxoid quantization, thus deepening understanding of confinement mechanisms.

Contribution

It establishes the dual London equation and fluxoid quantization in U(1) lattice gauge theory, linking monopole currents to confinement phenomena.

Findings

Monopole currents screen electric flux in the confined phase.

U(1) gauge theory obeys a dual London equation.

Fluxoid quantization condition is satisfied.

Abstract

We explore the analogy between quark confinement and the Meissner effect in superconductors. We measure the response of color-magnetic "supercurrents" from Dirac magnetic monopoles to the presence of a static quark-antiquark pair in four dimensional U(1) lattice gauge theory. Our results indicate that in the confined phase these currents screen the color-electric flux due to the quarks in an electric analogy of the Meisner effect. We show that U(1) lattice guage theory obeys both a dual London equation and an electric fluxoid quantization condition.