Hedgehogs in Wilson loops and phase transition in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory

DOI10.1016/J.NUCLPHYSB.2006.05.017zbMATH Open1214.81143arXivhep-lat/0512030OpenAlexW2012268480MaRDI QIDQ879877FDOQ879877

Authors: Vladimir Belavin, M. N. Chernodub, I. E. Kozlov 

Publication date: 10 May 2007

Published in: Nuclear Physics B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We suggest that the gauge-invariant hedgehoglike structures in the Wilson loops are physically interesting degrees of freedom in the Yang--Mills theory. The trajectories of these ``hedgehog loops are closed curves corresponding to center-valued (untraced) Wilson loops and are characterized by the center charge and winding number. We show numerically in the SU(2) Yang--Mills theory that the density of hedgehog structures in the thermal Wilson--Polyakov line is very sensitive to the finite-temperature phase transition. The (additively normalized) hedgehog line density behaves like an order parameter: the density is almost independent of the temperature in the confinement phase and changes substantially as the system enters the deconfinement phase. In particular, our results suggest that the (static) hedgehog lines may be relevant degrees of freedom around the deconfinement transition and thus affect evolution of the quark-gluon plasma in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-lat/0512030

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zbMATH Keywords

Yang-Mills theorylattice gauge theoryfinite temperaturetopological defectsdeconfinement phase transition

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Yang-Mills and other gauge theories in quantum field theory (81T13) Quantum field theory on lattices (81T25)

Cites Work

• Magnetic Monopoles
• Comparison of SO(3) and SU(2) lattice gauge theory
• Instantons and monopoles in general Abelian gauges
• Event-by-event fluctuations from decay of a Polyakov loop condensate

Cited In (1)

• Wilson loop's phase transition probed by non-local observable

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