Dual superconductivity in the SU(2) pure gauge vacuum: a lattice study

TL;DR

This lattice study provides evidence supporting the dual superconductivity model of the SU(2) gauge vacuum, demonstrating gauge-invariant properties and linking the penetration length to the string tension.

Contribution

It offers the first gauge-invariant measurement of the London penetration length and relates it to the string tension in SU(2) lattice gauge theory.

Findings

Evidence of the dual Meissner effect in SU(2) vacuum

Gauge-invariant measurement of the London penetration length

Relation between penetration length and string tension

Abstract

We investigate the dual superconductivity hypothesis in pure SU(2) lattice gauge theory. We focus on the dual Meissner effect by analyzing the distribution of the color fields due to a static quark-antiquark pair. We find evidence of the dual Meissner effect both in the maximally Abelian gauge and without gauge fixing. We measure the London penetration length. Our results suggest that the London penetration length is a physical gauge-invariant quantity. We put out a simple relation between the penetration length and the square root of the string tension. We find that our extimation is quite close to the extrapolated continuum limit available in the literature. A remarkable consequence of our study is that an effective Abelian theory can account for the long range properties of the SU(2) confining vacuum.