11 research outputs found
't Hooft Loops, Electric Flux Sectors and Confinement in SU(2) Yang-Mills Theory
We use 't Hooft loops of maximal size on finite lattices to calculate the
free energy in the sectors of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory with fixed electric flux
as a function of temperature and (spatial) volume. Our results provide evidence
for the mass gap. The confinement of electric fluxes in the low temperature
phase and their condensation in the high temperature phase are demonstrated. In
a surprisingly large scaling window around criticality, the transition is
quantitatively well described by universal exponents and amplitude ratios
relating the properties of the two phases.Comment: 5 Pages, LaTeX 2.09 (uses revtex v3.1), 5 Figures (epsfig), revised
version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Casimir scaling of domain wall tensions in the deconfined phase of D=3+1 SU(N) gauge theories
We perform lattice calculations of the spatial 't Hooft k-string tensions in
the deconfined phase of SU(N) gauge theories for N=2,3,4,6. These equal (up to
a factor of T) the surface tensions of the domain walls between the
corresponding (Euclidean) deconfined phases. For T much larger than Tc our
results match on to the known perturbative result, which exhibits Casimir
Scaling, being proportional to k(N-k). At lower T the coupling becomes stronger
and, not surprisingly, our calculations show large deviations from the
perturbative T-dependence. Despite this we find that the behaviour proportional
to k(N-k) persists very accurately down to temperatures very close to Tc. Thus
the Casimir Scaling of the 't Hooft tension appears to be a `universal' feature
that is more general than its appearance in the low order high-T perturbative
calculation. We observe the `wetting' of these k-walls at T around Tc and the
(almost inevitable) `perfect wetting' of the k=N/2 domain wall. Our
calculations show that as T tends to Tc the magnitude of the spatial `t Hooft
string tension decreases rapidly. This suggests the existence of a (would-be)
't Hooft string condensation transition at some temperature which is close to
but below Tc. We speculate on the `dual' relationship between this and the
(would-be) confining string condensation at the Hagedorn temperature that is
close to but above Tc.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figure