The Spatial String Tension in the Deconfined Phase of the (3+1)-Dimensional SU(2) Gauge Theory

We present results of a detailed investigation of the temperature dependence of the spatial string tension in SU(2) gauge theory. We show, for the first time, that the spatial string tension is scaling on the lattice and thus is non-vanishing in the continuum limit. It is temperature independent below Tc and rises rapidly above. For temperatures larger than 2Tc we find a scaling behaviour consistent with sigma_s(T) = 0.136(11) g^4(T) T^2, where g(T) is the 2-loop running coupling constant with a scale parameter determined as Lambda_T = 0.076(13) Tc.Comment: 8 pages (Latex, shell archive, 3 PostScript figures), HLRZ-93-43, BI-TP 93/30, FSU-SCRI-93-76, WUB 93-2

Vortex structures in pure SU(3) lattice gauge theory

The structures of confining vortices which underlie pure SU(3) Yang-Mills theory are studied by means of lattice gauge theory. Vortices and Z_3 monopoles are defined as dynamical degrees of freedom of the Z_3 gauge theory which emerges by center gauge fixing and by subsequent center projection. It is observed for the first time for the case of SU(3) that these degrees of freedom are sensible in the continuum limit: the planar vortex density and the monopole density properly scales with the lattice spacing. By contrast to earlier findings concerning the gauge group SU(2), the effective vortex theory only reproduces 62% of the full string tension. On the other hand, however, the removal of the vortices from the lattice configurations yields ensembles with vanishing string tension. SU(3) vortex matter which originates from Laplacian center gauge fixing is also discussed. Although these vortices recover the full string tension, they lack a direct interpretation as physical degrees of freedom in the continuum limit.Comment: 25 pages, 13 ps figures, improved presentation, results unchange

Gribov Copies in the Maximally Abelian Gauge and Confinement

We fix $SU(2)$ lattice gauge fields to the Maximally Abelian gauge in both three and four dimensions. We extract the corresponding $U(1)$ fields and monopole current densities and calculate separately the confining string tensions arising from these $U(1)$ fields and monopole `condensates'. We generate multiple Gribov copies and study how the $U(1)$ fields and monopole distributions vary between these different copies. As expected, we find substantial variations in the number of monopoles, their locations and in the values of the $U(1)$ field strengths. The string tensions extracted from `extreme' Gribov copies also differ but this difference appears to be no more than about 20\%. We also directly compare the fields of different Gribov copies. We find that on the distance scales relevant to confinement the $U(1)$ and monopole fluxes that disorder Wilson loops are highly correlated between these different Gribov copies. All this suggests that while there is indeed a Gribov copy problem the resulting ambiguity is, in this gauge and for the study of confinement, of limited importance.Comment: 31 pages LaTeX plus 5 PostScript figures. Uses epsf.sty. Self-unpacking, uuencoded tar-compressed fil

Three-Quark Potential in SU(3) Lattice QCD

The static three-quark (3Q) potential is measured in the SU(3) lattice QCD with $12^3 \times 24$ and $\beta=5.7$ at the quenched level. From the 3Q Wilson loop, the 3Q ground-state potential $V_{\rm 3Q}$ is extracted using the smearing technique for the ground-state enhancement. With accuracy better than a few %, $V_{\rm 3Q}$ is well described by a sum of a constant, the two-body Coulomb term and the three-body linear confinement term $\sigma_{\rm 3Q} L_{\rm min}$, where $L_{\rm min}$ denotes the minimal length of the color flux tube linking the three quarks. By comparing with the Q-$\bar {\rm Q}$ potential, we find a universal feature of the string tension, $\sigma_{\rm 3Q} \simeq \sigma_{\rm Q \bar Q}$, as well as the one-gluon-exchange result for the Coulomb coefficient, $A_{\rm 3Q} \simeq \frac12 A_{\rm Q \bar Q}$.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figur

Ab Initio Calculation of Relativistic Corrections to the Static Interquark potential I: SU(2) Gauge Theory

We test the capability of state-of-the-art lattice techniques for a precise determination of relativistic corrections to the static interquark potential, by use of SU(2) gauge theory. Emphasis is put on the short range structure of the spin dependent potentials, with lattice resolution a ranging from a approx 0.04 fm (at beta=2.74) down to a approx 0.02 fm (at beta=2.96) on volumes of 32^4 and 48^4 lattice sites. We find a new short range Coulomb-like contribution to the spin-orbit potential V_1'.Comment: 37 pages REVTeX with 20 encapsuled ps figure

Bianchi Type V Viscous Fluid Cosmological Models in Presence of Decaying Vacuum Energy

Bianchi type V viscous fluid cosmological model for barotropic fluid distribution with varying cosmological term $\Lambda$ is investigated. We have examined a cosmological scenario proposing a variation law for Hubble parameter $H$ in the background of homogeneous, anisotropic Bianchi type V space-time. The model isotropizes asymptotically and the presence of shear viscosity accelerates the isotropization. The model describes a unified expansion history of the universe indicating initial decelerating expansion and late time accelerating phase. Cosmological consequences of the model are also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Location, correlation, radiation: where is the σ\sigma, what is its structure and what is its coupling to photons?

Scalar mesons are a key expression of the infrared regime of QCD. The lightest of these is the $\sigma$. Now that its pole in the complex energy plane has been precisely located, we can ask whether this state is transiently ${\bar q}q$ or ${\bar {qq}} qq$ or a multi-meson molecule or largely glue? The two photon decay of the $\sigma$ can, in principle, discriminate between these possibilities. We review here how the $\gamma\gamma\to\pi^+\pi^-$, $\pi^0\pi^0$ cross-sections can be accurately computed. The result not only agrees with experiment, but definitively fixes the radiative coupling of the $\sigma$. This equates to a two photon width of $(4.1 \pm 0.3)$ keV, which accords with the simple non-relativistic quark model expectation for a ${\bar u}u, {\bar d}d$ scalar. Nevertheless, robust predictions from relativistic strong coupling QCD are required for each of the possible compositions before we can be sure which one really delivers the determined $\gamma\gamma$ coupling.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. To be published in Modern Physics Letters A A number of references updated and three sentences changed in the text to reflect thes

Topological Structure of the SU(3) Vacuum

We investigate the topological structure of the vacuum in SU(3) lattice gauge theory. We use under-relaxed cooling to remove the high-frequency fluctuations and a variety of "filters" to identify the topological charges in the resulting smoothened field configurations. We find a densely packed vacuum with an average instanton size, in the continuum limit, of about 0.5 fm. The density at large sizes decreases as a large inverse power of the size. At small sizes we see some sign of a trend towards the asymptotic perturbative behaviour. We find that an interesting polarisation phenomenon occurs: the large topological charges tend to have, on the average, the same sign and are over-screened by the smaller charges which tend to have, again on the average, the opposite sign to the larger instantons. We also calculate the topological susceptibility for which we obtain a continuum value of about 187 MeV. We perform the calculations for various volumes, lattice spacings and numbers of cooling sweeps, so as to obtain some control over the associated systematic errors. The coupling range is from beta=6.0 to beta=6.4 and the lattice volumes range from 16x16x16x48 to 32x32x32x64.Comment: LaTeX. Self-unpacking, uuencoded tar-compressed fil