A Magnetic Monopole in Pure SU(2) Gauge Theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates the properties of magnetic monopoles in pure SU(2) gauge theory using lattice simulations, providing insights into their mass and supporting the dual superconductor model of confinement.

Contribution

It introduces a lattice-based background field method to study monopoles in quantum SU(2) gauge theory, analyzing their mass across different energy scales.

Findings

Monopole mass varies with gauge coupling.

Results support the dual superconductor hypothesis.

Findings are consistent with previous conjectures.

Abstract

The magnetic monopole in euclidean pure SU(2) gauge theory is investigated using a background field method on the lattice. With Monte Carlo methods we study the mass of the monopole in the full quantum theory. The monopole background under the quantum fluctuations is induced by imposing fixed monopole boundary conditions on the walls of a finite lattice volume. By varying the gauge coupling it is possible to study monopoles with scales from the hadronic scale up to high energies. The results for the monopole mass are consistent with a conjecture we made previously in a realization of the dual superconductor hypothesis of confinement.