On Dirac sheet configurations of SU(2) lattice fields

Finite temperature Euclidean SU(2) lattice gauge fields close to the deconfinement phase transition are subjected to cooling. We find relatively stable or absolutely stable configurations with an action below the one-instanton action $S_{inst}=2\pi^2$ both in the deconfinement and the confinement phases. In this paper we attempt an interpretation of these lowest action configurations. Their action is purely magnetic and amounts to $S/S_{inst} \approx N_t/N_s$, where $N_t$ ($N_s$) is the timelike (spacelike) lattice size, while the topological charge vanishes. In the confined phase part of the corresponding lattice configurations turns out to be absolutely stable with respect to the cooling process in which case Abelian projection reveals a homogeneous, purely Abelian magnetic field closed over the "boundary" in one of the spatial directions. Referring to the dyonic structure established for the confinement phase near $T_c$ and based on the observation made for this phase that such events below the instanton action $S_{inst}$ emerge from dyon-antidyon annihilation, the question of stability (metastability) is discussed for both phases. The hypothetically different dyonic structure of the deconfinement phase, inaccessible by cooling, could explain the metastability.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Topology without cooling: instantons and monopoles near to deconfinement

In an attempt to describe the change of topological structure of pure SU(2) gauge theory near deconfinement a renormalization group inspired method is tested. Instead of cooling, blocking and subsequent inverse blocking is applied to Monte Carlo configurations to capture topological features at a well-defined scale. We check that this procedure largely conserves long range physics like string tension. UV fluctuations and lattice artefacts are removed which otherwise spoil topological charge density and Abelian monopole currents. We report the behaviour of topological susceptibility and monopole current densities across the deconfinement transition and relate the two faces of topology to each other. First results of a cluster analysis are described.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, LaTeX with espcrc2.sty. Talk and poster presented at Lattice97, Edinburgh, 22-26 July 1997, to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc.Suppl.

Confinement, deconfinement and the photon propagator in 3D cQED on the lattice

We report on a lattice study of the gauge boson propagator of 3D compact QED in Landau gauge at zero and finite temperature. Non-perturbative effects are reflected by the generation of a mass m and by an anomalous dimension alpha. These effects can be attributed to monopoles and are absent in the propagator of the regular part of the gauge field.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, talk presented by A.S. at 5th International Conference on Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, Gargnano, Italy, 10-14 Sep 200