A Note on Schwinger Mechanism and a Nonabelian Instability in a Nonabelian Plasma

We point out that there is a nonabelian instability for a nonabelian plasma which does not allow both for a net nonzero color charge and the existence of field configurations which are coherent over a volume $v$ whose size is determined by the chemical potential. The basic process which leads to this result is the Schwinger decay of chromoelectric fields, for the case where the field arises from commutators of constant potentials, rather than as the curl of spacetime dependent potentials. In terms of the fields, instability is obtained when Tr(DF)^2 > 0.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

The Hamiltonian Approach to Yang-Mills (2+1): An Expansion Scheme and Corrections to String Tension

We carry out further analysis of the Hamiltonian approach to Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 dimensions which helps to place the calculation of the vacuum wave function and the string tension in the context of a systematic expansion scheme. The solution of the Schrodinger equation is carried out recursively. The computation of correlators is re-expressed in terms of a two-dimensional chiral boson theory. The effective action for this theory is calculated to first order in our expansion scheme and to the fourth order in a kinematic expansion parameter. The resulting corrections to the string tension are shown to be very small, in the range -0.3% to -2.8%, moving our prediction closer to the recent lattice estimates.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figure

Solving Pure Yang Mills in 2+1 Dimensions

We analytically compute the spectrum of the spin zero glueballs in the planar limit of pure Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 dimensions. The new ingredient is provided by our computation of a new non-trivial form of the ground state wave-functional. The mass spectrum of the theory is determined by the zeroes of Bessel functions, and the agreement with large N lattice data is excellent.Comment: 4 page letter; version to appear in Physical Review Letter

On the Glueball Spectrum of Pure Yang-Mills Theory in 2+1 Dimensions

We present details of the analytic computation of the spectrum of lowest spin glueballs in pure Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 dimensions. The new ingredient is provided by the conjectured new non-trivial expression for the (quasi)Gaussian part of the ground state wave-functional. We show that this wave-functional can be derived by solving the Schrodinger equation under certain assumptions. The mass spectrum of the theory is determined by the zeros of Bessel functions, and the agreement with available lattice data is excellent.Comment: 43 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX; version to appear in Physical Review