Nonperturbative approach to Yang-Mills thermodynamics

TL;DR

This paper develops a nonperturbative analytical framework for SU(2) and SU(3) Yang-Mills thermodynamics, describing three phases with distinct excitations and phase transitions, and explores implications for physics and cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nonperturbative approach to analyze the phases and excitations in Yang-Mills thermodynamics, including the formation of scalar fields and phase transition characteristics.

Findings

Characterization of three phases: deconfining, preconfining, confining.

Determination of excitation types in each phase.

Temperature evolution of thermodynamic quantities.

Abstract

An analytical and nonperturbative approach to SU(2) and SU(3) Yang-Mills thermodynamics is developed and applied. Each theory comes in three phases: A deconfining, a preconfining, and a confining one. We show how macroscopic and inert scalar fields form in each phase and how they determine the ground-state physics and the properties of the excitations. While the excitations in the deconfining and preconfining phase are massless or massive gauge modes the excitations in the confining phase are massless or massive spin-1/2 fermions. The nature of the two phase transitions is investigated for each theory. We compute the temperature evolution of thermodynamical quantities in the deconfining and preconfining phase and estimate the density of states in the confining phase. Some implications for particle physics and cosmology are discussed.