15 pages, 5 figures; based on talks at 13th Lomonosov Conference, Moscow, Russia, August 23 - 29, 2007; and at the conference "Strong Coupling: from Lattice to AdS/CFT", Florence, Italy, June 3 - 5, 2008. To appear in a special issue of Physics of Atomic Nuclei
We discuss the role of magnetic degrees of freedom in Yang-Mills plasma at temperatures above and of order of the critical temperature Tc. While at zero temperature the magnetic degrees of freedom are condensed and electric degrees of freedom are confined, at the point of the phase transition both magnetic and electric degrees of freedom are released into the thermal vacuum. This phenomenon might explain the observed unusual properties of the plasma.
SU(2) gluodynamics is investigated numerically and analytically in the (Indirect) Maximal Center gauge at finite temperature. The center vortices are shown to be condensed in the confinement phase and dilute in the deconfinement phase. A new physical object, center monopole, is constructed. We show that the center monopole condensate is the order parameter of deconfinement phase transition. The linking of the vortex worldsheets and quark trajectories is identified with the Aharonov-Bohm interaction in an effective Abelian Higgs theory. We conclude that the confinement in the Maximal Center gau…
Condensation of the Abelian monopoles and the center vortices leads to confinement of color in low temperature phase of Yang-Mills theory. We stress that these topological magnetic degrees of freedom are also very important in the deconfinement regime: at the point of the deconfinement phase transition both the monopoles and the vortices are released into the thermal vacuum contributing, in particular, to the equation of state and, definitely, to transport properties of the hot gluonic medium. Thus, we argue that a novel, magnetic component plays a crucial role. On the other hand, it was demon…
We give a gauge-invariant definition of the vortex surface in SU(N) Yang-Mills theory without using the gauge fixing procedure. In this construction, gauge-invariant magnetic monopoles with fractional magnetic charges emerge in the boundary of the non-oriented vortex surface such that the asymptotic string tension reproduces the correct $N$-ality dependence. We show that gauge-invariant magnetic monopoles and vortices are simultaneously responsible for quark confinement in four dimensional spacetime based on the Wilson criterion. These results are extracted from a non-Abelian Stokes theorem de…
Grand unified theories of fundamental forces predict that magnetic monopoles are inevitable in the Universe because the second homotopy group of the order parameter manifold is $\mathbb{Z}$. We point out that monopoles can annihilate in pairs due to an influence of Alice strings. As a consequence, a monopole charge is charactarized by $\mathbb{Z}_2$ rather than $\mathbb{Z}$ if the Universe can accommodate Alice strings, which is the case of certain grand unified theories.
We study the relation between the flux of a center vortex obtained from the center vortex model and the flux formed between monopoles obtained from the Abelian gauge fixing method. Motivated by the Monte Carlo simulations which have shown that almost all monopoles are sitting on the top of vortices, we construct the fluxes of center vortices for $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$ gauge groups using fractional fluxes of monopoles. Then, we compute the potentials in the fundamental representation induced by center vortices and fractional fluxes of monopoles. We show that by combining the fractional fluxes of m…
We study the correlations between center vortices and Abelian monopoles for SU($3$) gauge group. Combining fractional fluxes of monopoles, center vortex fluxes are constructed in the thick center vortex model. Calculating the potentials induced by fractional fluxes constructing the center vortex flux in a thick center vortex-like model and comparing with the potential induced by center vortices, we observe an attraction between fractional fluxes of monopoles constructing the center vortex flux. We conclude that the center vortex flux is stable, as expected. In addition, we show that adding a c…
Ensembles of magnetic defects represent quantum variables that have been detected and extensively explored in lattice ${\rm SU}(N)$ pure Yang-Mills theory. They successfully explain many properties of confinement and are strongly believed to capture the (infrared) path-integral measure. In this work, we initially motivate the presence of magnetic non-Abelian degrees of freedom in these ensembles. Next, we consider a simple Gaussian model to account for fluctuations. In this case, both center vortices and monopoles become relevant degrees in Wilson loop averages. These physical inputs are then …
These lectures start with an elementary introduction to the subject of magnetic monopoles which should be accesible from any physics background. In the Weinberg-Salam model of electroweak interactions, magnetic monopoles appear at the ends of a type of non-topological vortices called electroweak strings. These will also be discussed, as well as recent simulations of their formation during a phase transition which indicate that, in the (unphysical) range of parameters in which the strings are classically stable, they can form with a density comparable to topological vortices.
We determine the detailed thermodynamic behavior of vortices in the O(2) scalar model in 2D and of global monopoles in the O(3) model in 3D. We construct new numerical techniques, based on cluster decomposition algorithms, to analyze the point defect configurations. We find that these criteria produce results for the Kosterlitz-Thouless temperature in agreement with a topological transition between a polarizable insulator and a conductor, at which free topological charges appear in the system. For global monopoles we find no pair unbinding transition. Instead a transition to a dense state wher…
Two exotic objects are still not identified experimentally in chiral superfluids and superconductors. These are the half-quantum vortex, which plays the part of the Alice string in relativistic theories, and the hedgehog in the l-field, which is the counterpart of the Dirac magnetic monopole. These two objects of different dimensionality are topologically connected. They form the combined object which is called nexus in relativistic theories (hep-th/9911125). Such combination will allow us to observe half-quantum vortices and monopoles in several realistic geometries.
We argue that in the infrared regime of continuum Yang-Mills theory, the possibility of a mass gap in the charged sector is closely associated with the center vortex sector. The analysis of the possible consequences of the ensembles of defects is done by showing that the description of center vortices and monopoles is naturally unified by means of a careful treatment of Cho decomposition. If on the one hand confinement is usually associated with monopole condensation in a compact abelian model, in this scenario, the previous decoupling of the off-diagonal degrees of freedom, for the abelian mo…
In this work, we review a recently proposed measure to compute center-element averages in a mixed ensemble of center vortices and chains with non-Abelian d.o.f. and monopole fusion. When center vortices percolate and monopoles condense, the average is captured by a saddle point and collective modes in a YMH model. In this manner, the Lüscher term, confining flux tubes with N-ality and confined gluons were accommodated in an ensemble picture.
We show how vortices can appear in the low energy limit of a pure SU(2) Yang-Mills theory as topological solitons. Motivated by Abelian dominance, we suppose that in the infrared regime of the SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, the field strength tensor can be obtained by multiplying two parts: $ G_{μν} $ and $ \textbf{n} $ such that $ \textbf{G}_{μν}=G_{μν} \textbf{n} $. The first part, $ G_{μν} $, is a space-time tensor and the second part, $ \textbf{n} $, is an isotriplet unit vector field which gives the Abelian direction at each space-time point. This leads to a decomposition for the SU(2) Yang-Mil…
We study the relation between center vortex fluxes and monopole fluxes for $SU(2)$ gauge group in a model. This model is the same as thick center vortex model but we use monopole-antimonopole configurations instead of center vortices in the vacuum. Monopole-antimonopole configurations are line-like similar to center vortices. The group factor and potential for the fundamental representation of these configurations are studied and compared with those of center vortices. As a result, we obtain monopole-vortex chains which appear in lattice Monte Carlo simulations, as well. If these monopole-vort…
We discuss two exotic objects, which must be experimentally identified in chiral superfluids and superconductors. These are (i) the vortex with fractional quantum number (N=1/2 in chiral superfluids, and N=1/2 and N=1/4 in chiral superconductors), which plays the part ofthe Alice string in relativistic theories; and (ii) the hedgehog in the l-field, which is the counterpart of the Dirac magnetic monopole. These objects of different dimensions are topologically connected. They form the combined object which is called nexus in relativistic theories. In chiral superconductors the nexus has magnet…
We investigate the connection between Color Confinement and thermal Abelian monopoles populating the deconfined phase of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, by studying how the statistical properties of the monopole ensemble change as the confinement/deconfinement temperature is approached from above. In particular we study the distribution of monopole currents with multiple wrappings in the Euclidean time direction, corresponding to two or more particle permutations, and show that multiple wrappings increase as the deconfinement temperature is approached from above, in a way compatible with a condensati…
We study the embedded QCD monopoles (``quark monopoles'') using low-lying eigenmodes of the overlap Dirac operator in zero- and finite-temperature SU(2) Yang-Mills theory on the lattice. These monopoles correspond to the gauge-invariant hedgehogs in the quark-antiquark condensates. The monopoles were suggested to be agents of the chiral symmetry restoration since their cores should suppress the chiral condensate. We study numerically the scalar, axial and chirally invariant definitions of the embedded monopoles and show that the monopole densities are in fact globally anti-correlated with the …
We examine the basic assumptions underlying a scenario due to Kibble that is widely used to estimate the production of topological defects. We argue that one of the crucial assumptions, namely the geodesic rule, although completely valid for global defects, becomes ill defined for the case of gauged defects. We address the issues involved in formulating a suitable geodesic rule for this case and argue that the dynamics plays an important role in the production of gauge defects.
We study the properties of Nambu monopoles and Z-vortices in the 3D lattice SU(2) Higgs theory which represents the Standard Model at high temperature. We show that the densities of the Nambu monopoles and the Z-vortices are O(1) in the symmetric phase and generically small in the Higgs phase. Near to the critical Higgs mass and in the vicinity of the phase transition the densities are no more negligible in the broken phase. The percolation probability of the Z-vortex lines is found as a new disorder parameter for this phase transition. We conclude that the transition to the symmetric phase is…
We present recent results on quark confinement: in SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, confinement of fundamental quarks is obtained due to the dual Meissner effect originated from non-Abelian magnetic monopoles defined in a gauge-invariant way, which is distinct from the well-known Abelian projection scenario. This is achieved by using a non-Abelian Stokes theorem for the Wilson loop operator and a new reformulation of the Yang-Mills theory.
We review some recent developments on BPS string solutions and monopole confinement in the Higgs or (color) superconducting phase of deformed N=2 and N=4 super Yang-Mills theories. In particular, the monopole magnetic fluxes are shown to be always integer linear combinations of string fluxes. Moreover, a bound for the threshold length of the string breaking is obtained. When the gauge group SU(N) is broken to Z_N, the BPS string tension satisfies the Casimir scaling law. Furthermore in the SU(3) case the string solutions are such that they allow the formation of a confining system with three m…
Monopole solutions in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory which includes spinor fields described by the nonlinear Dirac equation are obtained. It is demonstrated that the energy spectrum of such a system possesses a global minimum whose appearance is brought about solely by the nonlinear spinor fields. It is shown that the monopole solution obtained differs in principle from the 't~Hooft-Polyakov monopole in that it is topologically trivial.
Yang-Mills theory is studied in a variant of 't Hooft's maximal Abelian gauge. In this gauge magnetic monopoles arise in the Abelian magnetic field. We show, however, that the full (non-Abelian) magnetic field does not possess any monopoles, but rather strings of magnetic fluxes. We argue that these strings are the relevant infrared degrees of freedom. The properties of the magnetic strings which arise from a dilute instanton gas are investigated for the gauge group SU(2).
It is known that monopoles can be confined by vortex-strings in d=3+1 while vortices can be confined by domain-lines in d=2+1. Here, as a higher dimensional generalization of these, we show that Yang-Mills instantons can be confined by monopole-strings in d=4+1. We achieve this by putting the system into the Higgs phase in which the configuration can be constructed inside a non-Abelian vortex sheet.
We show that the QCD vacuum (without dynamical quarks) is a dual superconductor at least in the low-energy region in the sense that monopole condensation does really occur. In fact, we derive the dual Ginzburg-Landau theory (i.e., dual Abelian Higgs model) directly from the SU(2) Yang-Mills theory by adopting the maximal Abelian gauge. The dual superconductor can be on the border between type II and type I, excluding the London limit. The masses of the dual Abelian gauge field is expressed by the Yang-Mills gauge coupling constant and the mass of the off-diagonal gluon of the original Yang-Mil…
In this work, we analyze a class of Yang-Mills models containing adjoint Higgs fields, with SU(N) symmetry spontaneously broken down to Z(N), showing they contain center vortices, Y-junctions formed by them, and junctions where different center vortices are smoothly interpolated by monopole-like configurations. In the context of dual superconductors, these objects represent different states of the gluon field. Center vortices confine quarks to form normal hadron states. The interpolating monopole, which in our model cannot exist as an isolated configuration, is identified with a confined valen…
Scaling behavior in the moduli space of monopole and dyon solutions in the Einstein-Yang-Mills theory in the asymptotically anti-de Sitter space is derived. The mass of monopoles and dyons scales with respect to their magnetic and electric charges, independent of the values of the cosmological constant and gauge coupling constant. The stable monopole and dyon solutions are approximated by solutions in the fixed anti-de Sitter spacetime. Unstable solutions can be viewed as the Bartnik-McKinnon solutions dressed with monopole and dyon solutions in the fixed anti-de Sitter space.
Recently, it has been observed that the non-Abelian action associated with lattice monopoles and vortices is ultraviolet divergent, at least at presently available lattices. On the other hand, the total length of the monopole trajectories and area of the vortices scale in physical units. Coexistence of the two different scales, infrared and ultraviolet, for the same vacuum fluctuations represents a fine tuning. To check consistency of the newly emerging picture of non--perturbative fluctuations we consider constraints from the continuum theory on the ultraviolet behaviour of the monopoles and …
A gauge transformation provided by the three eigenfunctions of $\B^a(x) \cdot \B^b(x)$ (where $\B^a(x)$, with a=1,2,3, are the non-Abelian magnetic fields) exposes the topological configurations of the Yang-Mills fields. In particular, it gives Dirac monopoles interacting with `photons' and massless charged vector bosons. A magnetic dipole field at each monopole corresponds to infinitesimal translation of the monopole, and provides the functional measure a la collective coordinates. The grand canonical partition function of the monopole plasma is exactly equivalent to a local field theory with…
We study the vacuum structure and dyon spectrum of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory in four dimensions, with gauge group SU(2). The theory turns out to have remarkably rich and physical properties which can nonetheless be described precisely; exact formulas can be obtained, for instance, for electron and dyon masses and the metric on the moduli space of vacua. The description involves a version of Olive-Montonen electric-magnetic duality. The ``strongly coupled'' vacuum turns out to be a weakly coupled theory of monopoles, and with a suitable perturbation confinement is described by monopole co…
We show that when a topological defect with extended world-volume annihilates with an anti-defect, there arise topological defects with dimensions less than those of the original defects by one. Domain wall annihilations create vortices while monopole-string annihilations result in instantons. We find that twisted domain wall rings are vortices, whereas twisted monopole rings are instantons.
We study junctions of vortices, or boojums, at the interface between color and hadronic superconducting/superfluid phases. This type of interface could be present in the interior of neutron stars, where an inner core made of quark matter in the color-flavor-locked phase is surrounded by an outer shell of superconducting protons and superfluid neutrons. We study the fate of magnetic (proton) and superfluid (neutron) vortices as they enter the color-flavor locked phase. We find that proton vortices terminate on Dirac monopoles of the massless magnetic field, and magnetic fluxes of massive gauge …
We discuss a non-minimal Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs model with uniaxial anisotropy in the group space associated with the Higgs field. We apply this theory to the problem of propagation of color and color-acoustic waves in the gravitational background related to the non-minimal regular Wu-Yang monopole.
We use the SU(2) 't Hooft-Polyakov monopole configuration, and its BPS version, to test the integral equations of the Yang-Mills theory. Those integral equations involve two (complex) parameters which do not appear in the differential Yang-Mills equations, and if they are considered to be arbitrary it then implies that non-abelian gauge theories (but not abelian ones) possess an infinity of integral equations. For static monopole configurations only one of those parameters is relevant. We expand the integral Yang-Mills equation in a power series of that parameter and show that the 't Hooft-Pol…
Dark sectors with Abelian gauge symmetries can interact with ordinary matter via kinetic mixing. In such scenarios, magnetic monopoles of a broken dark $U(1)$ will appear in our sector as confined milli-magnetically charged objects under ordinary electromagnetism. Halo ellipticity constraints are shown to significantly bound the strength of dark magnetic Coulomb monopole interactions. The bound monopole ground state, which in vacuum is stable and has no magnetic charge or moment, is shown to become quantum mechanically unstable in the presence of an external, ordinary magnetic field. If these …
We use the moduli matrix approach to study the moduli space of 1/4 BPS kinks supported by vortices in the Higgs phase of N = 2 supersymmetric U(N) gauge theories when non-zero masses for the matter hypermultiplets are introduced. We focus on the case of degenerate masses. In these special cases vortices acquire new orientational degrees of freedom, and become "non-Abelian". Kinks acquire new degrees of freedom too, and we will refer to them as "non-Abelian". As already noticed for the Abelian case, non-Abelian kinks must correspond to non-Abelian monopoles of the unbroken phase of SU(N) Yang-M…
The coupling to gravity in D=5 spacetime dimensions is considered for the particle-like and vortex-type solutions obtained by uplifting the D=4 Yang-Mills instantons and D=3 Yang-Mills-Higgs monopoles. It turns out that the particles become completely destroyed by gravity, while the vortices admit a rich spectrum of gravitating generalizations. Such vortex defects may be interesting in view of the AdS/CFT correspondence or in the context of the brane world scenario.
By extending the Cho decomposition method to G(2) gauge group, monopoles of this group are studied. Since SU(2) and SU(3) are subgroups of G(2), discussions are done mostly based on these subgroups of G(2). A direct relation between root vectors of G(2) and the associated magnetic charges is presented by group theoretical issues. In addition, G(2) monopoles are obtained by an Abelian gauge fixing method, and it is shown that the results agree with the ones we obtain by the Cho decomposition method.
