Center vortices as rigid strings

It is shown that the action associated with center vortices in SU(2) lattice gauge theory is strongly correlated with extrinsic and internal curvatures of the vortex surface and that this correlation persists in the continuum limit. Thus a good approximation for the effective vortex action is the action of rigid strings, which can reproduce some of the observed geometric properties of center vortices. It is conjectured that rigidity may be induced by some fields localized on vortices, and a model-independent test of localization is performed. Monopoles detected in the Abelian projection are discussed as natural candidates for such two-dimensional fields.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, RevTeX

Random walks of Wilson loops in the screening regime

Dynamics of Wilson loops in pure Yang-Mills theories is analyzed in terms of random walks of the holonomies of the gauge field on the gauge group manifold. It is shown that such random walks should necessarily be free. The distribution of steps of these random walks is related to the spectrum of string tensions of the theory and to certain cumulants of Yang-Mills curvature tensor. It turns out that when colour charges are completely screened, the holonomies of the gauge field can change only by the elements of the group center, which indicates that in the screening regime confinement persists due to thin center vortices. Thick center vortices are also considered and the emergence of such stepwise changes in the limits of infinitely thin vortices and infinitely large loops is demonstrated.Comment: Major revision of the previous version, to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (10 pages RevTeX, 3 figures

Sexual functioning more than 15 years after premenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy

Background: Women with a BRCA1/2 pathogenic variant are advised to undergo premenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy after completion of childbearing, to reduce their risk of ovarian cancer. Several studies reported less sexual pleasure 1 to 3 years after a premenopausal oophorectomy. However, the long-term effects of premenopausal oophorectomy on sexual functioning are unknown. Objective: This study aimed to study long-term sexual functioning in women at increased familial risk of breast or ovarian cancer who underwent a risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy either before the age of 46 years (premenopausal group) or after the age of 54 years (postmenopausal group). Subgroup analyses were performed in the premenopausal group, comparing early (before the age of 41 years) and later (at ages 41–45 years) premenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy. Study Design: Between 2018 and 2021, 817 women with a high familial risk of breast or ovarian cancer from an ongoing cohort study were invited to participate in our study. Because of a large difference in age in the study between the premenopausal and postmenopausal salpingo-oophorectomy groups, we restricted the comparison of sexual functioning between the groups to 368 women who were 60 to 70 years old at completion of the questionnaire (226 in the premenopausal group and 142 in the postmenopausal group). In 496 women with a premenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy, we compared the sexual functioning between women in the early premenopausal group (n=151) and women in the later premenopausal group (n=345). Differences between groups were analyzed using multiple regression analyses, adjusting for current age, breast cancer history, use of hormone replacement therapy, body mass index, chronic medication use (yes or no), and body image. Results: Mean times since risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy were 20.6 years in the premenopausal group and 10.6 years in the postmenopausal group (P<.001). The mean age at questionnaire completion was 62.7 years in the premenopausal group, compared with 67.0 years in the postmenopausal group (P<.001). Compared with 48.9% of women in the postmenopausal group, 47.4% of women in the premenopausal group were still sexually active (P=.80). Current sexual pleasure scores were the same for women in the premenopausal group and women in the postmenopausal group (mean pleasure score, 8.6; P=.99). However, women in the premenopausal group more often reported substantial discomfort than women in the postmenopausal group (35.6% vs 20.9%; P=.04). After adjusting for confounders, premenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy was associated with substantially more discomfort during sexual intercourse than postmenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (odds ratio, 3.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.04–9.4). Moreover, after premenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy, more severe complaints of vaginal dryness were observed (odds ratio, 2.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.4–4.7). Women with a risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy before the age of 41 years reported similar pleasure and discomfort scores as women with a risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy between ages 41 and 45 years. Conclusion: More than 15 years after premenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy, the proportion of sexually active women was comparable with the proportion of sexually active women with a postmenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy. However, after a premenopausal risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy, women experienced more vaginal dryness and more often had substantial sexual discomfort during sexual intercourse. This did not lead to less pleasure with sexual activity