Gauge invariant investigation of the nature of Confinement

We observe a strong correlation between the decrease in the number of action density peaks in SU(2) Yang-Mills configurations with cooling and that of the string tension. The nature and distribution of these peaks is investigated. The relationship with monopole currents after the abelian projection is also considered.Comment: uuencoded and Z-compressed file of the Postcript version of our contribution to LATTICE 95. 4 pages of text and 4 figure

Vortex configurations in the large N limit

We study the properties of vortex-like configurations which are solutions of the SU(N) Yang-Mills classical equations of motion. We show that these solutions are concentrated along a two-dimensional wall with size growing with the number of colors.Comment: 13 pages, 4 postscript figure

Large N reduction on a twisted torus

We consider SU(N) lattice gauge theory at infinite N defined on a torus with a CP invariant twist. Massless fermions are incorporated in an elegant way, while keeping them quenched. We present some numerical results which suggest that twisting can make numerical simulations of planar QCD more efficient.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Self-dual vortex-like configurations in SU(2) Yang-Mills Theory

We show that there are solutions of the SU(2) Yang-Mills classical equations of motion in R^4, which are self-dual and vortex-like(fluxons). The action density is concentrated along a thick two-dimensional wall (the world sheet of a straight infinite vortex line). The configurations are constructed from self-dual R^2 x T^2 configurations.Comment: latex2e file. 10 pages 2 figure

Twisted reduction in large N QCD with adjoint Wilson fermions

The twisted space-time reduced model of large $N$ QCD with various flavours of adjoint Wilson fermions is constructed applying the symmetric twist boundary conditions with flux $k$. The models with one and two flavours show distinctive behaviours. For the two flavor case, the string tension, calculated at $N=289$, approaches zero as we decrease the quark mass in a way consistent with the theory being governed by an infrared fixed point. In contrast, the string tension for the case of a single adjoint Wilson fermion remains finite as the quark mass decreases to zero, supporting that this is a confining theory.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, presented at the 31st International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2013), 29 July - 3 August 2013, Mainz, German

The string tension from smeared Wilson loops at large N

We present the results of a high statistics analysis of smeared Wilson loops in 4 dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory for various values of N. The data is used to analyze the behaviour of smeared Creutz ratios, extracting from them the value of the string tension and other asymptotic parameters. A scaling analysis allows us to extrapolate to the continuum limit for N=3,5,6 and 8. The results are consistent with a $1/N^2$ approach towards the large N limit. The same analysis is done for the TEK model (one-point lattice) for N=841 and a non-minimal symmetric twist with flux of $k=9$. The results match perfectly with the extrapolated large N values, confirming the validity of the reduction idea for this range of parameters.Comment: Enlarged revised version with 2 tables and 3 figure

The string tension for Large N gauge theory from smeared Wilson loops

Using smeared Creutz ratios we extract the string tension for SU(N) pure gauge theory and $N$=3,4,5,6,8. We employ these results to extrapolate to large N. The same methodology is applied to the single-site Twisted Eguchi Kawai model. The corresponding string tension matches perfectly within errors with the extrapolated one, providing strong evidence in favour of the twisted reduction framework. Interesting results are also obtained on the behaviour of Creutz ratios for large sizes.Comment: 7 pages and 3 figures. Contribution to Lattice 2012 in Cairn