Instanton-dyons, also known as instanton-monopoles or instanton-quarks, are topological constituents of the instantons at nonzero temperature and holonomy. We perform numerical simulations of the ensemble of interacting dyons for the SU(2) pure gauge theory. Unlike previous studies, we focus on back reaction on the holonomy and the issue of confinement. We calculate the free energy as a function of the holonomy and the dyon densities, using standard Metropolis Monte Carlo and integration over parameter methods. We observe that as the temperature decreases and the dyon density grows, its minimum indeed moves from small holonomy to the value corresponding to confinement. We then report various parameters of the self-consistent ensembles as a function of temperature, and investigate the role of inter-particle correlations.
This is the second paper of the series aimed at understanding the ensemble of instanton-dyons, now with two flavors of light dynamical quarks. The partition function is appended by the fermionic factor, $(det T)^{N_f}$ and Dirac eigenvalue spectra at small values are derived from the numerical simulation of 64 and 128 dyons. Those spectra show clear chiral symmetry breaking pattern at high dyon density.
Instanton-dyons, also known as instanton-monopoles or instanton-quarks, are topological constituents of the instantons at nonzero temperature and nonzero expectation value of $A_4$. While the interaction between instanton-dyons has been calculated to one-loop order by a number of authors, that for dyon-antidyon pairs remains unknown even at the classical level. In this work we are filling this gap, by solving the gradient flow equation on a 3d lattice. We start with two well separated objects. We find that, after initial rapid relaxation, the configurations follow "streamline" set of configura…
Confinement remains one the most interesting and challenging nonperturbative phenomenon in non-Abelian gauge theories. Recent semiclassical (for SU(2)) and lattice (for QCD) studies have suggested that confinement arises from interactions of statistical ensembles of instanton-dyons with the Polyakov loop. In this work, we extend studies of semiclassical ensemble of dyons to the $SU(3)$ Yang-Mills theory. We find that such interactions do generate the expected first-order deconfinement phase transition. The properties of the ensemble, including correlations and topological susceptibility, are s…
It is known since 1980's that the instanton-induced 't Hooft effective Lagrangian not only can solve the so called $U(1)a$ problem, by making the $η'$ meson heavy etc, but it can also lead to chiral symmetry breaking. In 1990's it was demonstrated that, taken to higher orders, this Lagrangian correctly reproduces effective forces in a large set of hadronic channels, mesonic and baryonic ones. Recent progress in understanding gauge topology at finite temperatures is related with the so called {\em instanton-dyons}, the constituents of the instantons. Some of them, called $L$-dyons, possess the …
The mechanism of confinement in Yang-Mills theories remains a challenge to our understanding of nonperturbative gauge dynamics. While it is widely perceived that confinement may arise from chromo-magnetically charged gauge configurations with nontrivial topology, it is not clear what types of configurations could do that and how, in pure Yang-Mills and QCD-like (non-supersymmetric) theories. Recently a promising approach has emerged, based on statistical ensembles of dyons/anti-dyons that are constituents of instanton/anti-instanton solutions with nontrivial holonomy where the holonomy plays a…
We revisit the instanton-dyon liquid model in the confined phase by using a non-linear Debye-Huckel (DH) resummation for the Coulomb interactions induced by the moduli, followed by a cluster expansion. The organization is shown to rapidly converge and yields center symmetry at high density. The dependence of these results on a finite vacuum angle are also discussed. We also formulate the hypernetted chain (HCN) resummation for the dense instanton-dyon liquid and use it to estimate the liquid pair correlation functions in the DH limit. At very low temperature, the dense limit interpolates betwe…
We study the confinement phase transition in $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills theory, based on a statistical ensemble model of correlated instanton-dyons. We show for the first time that such a model provides a quantitative description, in light of the lattice data, for the temperature dependence of the order parameter. We characterize the short-range interaction which plays a crucial role for the properties of such ensemble. The chromo-magnetic charge density as well as the spatial correlations is found to be consistent with known lattice and phenomenological information.
In this work we present the results from numerical simulations of an interacting ensemble of instanton-dyons in the $SU(3)$ gauge group with $N_f=2$ flavors of massless quarks. Dynamical quarks are included via the effective interactions induced by the fermionic determinant evaluated in the subspace of topological zero modes. The eigenvalue spectrum of the Dirac operator is studied at different volumes to extract the chiral condensate and eigenvalue gap, with both observables providing consistent values of the chiral transition temperature $T_c$. We find that a sufficient density of dyons is r…
We calculate exactly functional determinants for quantum oscillations about periodic instantons with non-trivial value of the Polyakov line at spatial infinity. Hence, we find the weight or the probability with which calorons with non-trivial holonomy occur in the Yang--Mills partition function. The weight depends on the value of the holonomy, the temperature, Lambda_QCD, and the separation between the BPS monopoles (or dyons) which constitute the periodic instanton. At large separation between constituent dyons, the quantum measure factorizes into a product of individual dyon measures, times …
We discuss an extension of the instanton-dyon liquid model that includes light quarks at finite chemical potential in the center symmetric phase. We develop the model in details for the case of SU_c(2)\times SU_f(2) by mapping the theory on a 3-dimensional quantum effective theory. We analyze the different phases in the mean-field approximation. We extend this analysis to the general case of SU_c(N_c)\times SU_f(N_f) and note that the chiral and diquark pairings are always comparable.
We discuss an extension of the instanton-dyon liquid model that includes twisted light quarks in the fundamental representation with explicit $Z_{N_c}$ symmetry for the case with equal number of colors $N_c$ and flavors $N_f$. We map the model on a 3-dimensional quantum effective theory, and analyze it in the mean-field approximation. The effective potential and the vacuum chiral condensates are made explicit for $N_f=N_c=2, 3$. The low temperature phase is center symmetric but breaks spontaneously flavor symmetry with $N_f-1$ massless pions. The high temperature phase breaks center symmetry b…
We discuss the instanton-dyon liquid model with $N_f$ Majorana quark flavors in the adjoint representation of color $SU_c(2)$ at finite temperature. We briefly recall the index theorem on $S^1\times R^3$ for twisted adjoint fermions in a BPS dyon background of arbitrary holonomy, and use the ADHM construction to explicit the adjoint anti-periodic zero modes. We use these results to derive the partition function of an interacting instanton-dyon ensemble with $N_f$ light and anti-periodic adjoint quarks. We develop the model in details by mapping the theory on a 3-dimensional quantum effective t…
We study the free energy of a quark-antiquark pair near the deconfinement temperature by particle mesh Ewald's method for non-interacting dyon ensemble. We show that the free energy of the quark-antiquark pair increases linearly by increasing the distance between them. The string tension decreases by increasing the temperature, as expected.
Instantons at finite temperature consist of dyons, with their masses depending on the asymptotic Polyakov loop. It is shown that the suppression of heavy dyons can explain qualitatively the behavior of the periodic and antiperiodic chiral condensate and the topological susceptibility above the phase transition.
"Exotic quarks" in the title refers to a modification of quark periodicity condition on the thermal circle by introduction of some phases -- known also as "flavor holonomies" -- different quark flavors. These phases provide a valuable tool, to be used for better understanding of deconfinement and chiral restoration phase transitions: by changing them one can dramatically modify both phase transitions. In the language of instanton constituents -- instanton-dyons or monopoles -- it has a very direct explanation: the interplay of flavor and color holonomies can switch topological zero modes betwe…
Paradigme shift in gauge topology, from instantons to their constituents -- instanton-dyons -- has recently lead to very significant advances. Like instantons, they have fermionic zero modes, and their collectivization at sufficiently high density explains the chiral symmetry breaking. Unlike instantons, these objects have electric and magnetic charges. Their back reaction on the mean value of the Polyakov line (holonomy) allows to explain the deconfinement transition. The talk summarizes recent works on the dyon ensemble, done in the mean field approximation (MFA), and also by direct numerica…
These lectures contain an introduction to instantons, calorons and dyons of the Yang--Mills gauge theory. Since we are interested in the mechanism of confinement and of the deconfinement phase transition at some critical temperature, the Yang--Mills theory is formulated and studied at nonzero temperatures. We introduce ``calorons with a nontrivial holonomy'' that are generalizations of instantons and can be viewed as ``made of'' constituent dyons. The quantum weight with which these calorons contribute to the Yang--Mills partition function is considered, and the ensuing statistical mechanics o…
We present arguments suggesting that large size overlapping instantons are the driving mechanism of the confinement-deconfinement phase transition at nonzero chemical potential mu. The arguments are based on the picture that instantons at very large chemical potential in the weak coupling regime are localized configurations with finite size ρ\simμ^{-1}. At the same time, the same instantons at smaller chemical potential in the strong coupling regime are well represented by the so-called instanton-quarks with fractional topological charge 1/N_c. We estimate the critical chemical potential mu_c(…
In the instanton ensemble the fermionic zero modes collectivize and break chiral symmetry. Recent studies of resulting zero mode zone confirm its very small width and overall importance for lattice simulations. Confinement however has been related with completely different topological objects, the magnetic monopoles. Instanton constituents -- instanton dyons, discovered at nonzero holonomy by Pierre van Baal and others -- are able to explain both confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. The talk summarizes recent works deriving the instanton-dyon mutual interactions, and statistical studies o…
I present arguments in favor of the dyon mechanism of confinement and deconfinement. Dyons may be those real physical objects that are revealed as lattice monopoles in the Abelian gauges, and as central vortices in the central gauges. I suggest a lattice calculation of the effective action as function of the gauge invariant eigenvalues of the Polyakov line, which is of general interest but in particular may support or refute the importance of dyons in the Yang--Mills vacuum.
We investigate instantons in finite temperature QCD via Witten's holographic QCD. To study the deconfinement phase, we use the setup proposed in [1] (arXiv:1107.4048). We find that the sizes of the instantons are stabilized at certain values both in the confinement and deconfinement phases. This agrees with the numerical result in the lattice gauge theory. Besides we find that the gravity duals of the large and small instantons in the deconfinement phase have different topologies. We also argue that the fluctuation of the topological charges is large in confinement phase while it is exponentia…
The functional determinant is computed exactly for quantum oscillations about periodic instantons with non-trivial values of the Polyakov line at spatial infinity (or holonomy). Such instantons can be viewed as composed of the Bogomolnyi--Prasad--Sommerfeld (BPS) monopoles or dyons. We find the weight or the probability with which dyons occur in the pure Yang--Mills partition function. It turns out that dyons experience quantum interactions having the familiar "linear plus Coulomb" form but with the "string tension'' depending on the holonomy. We present an argument that at temperatures below …
We reveal the center vortex content of SU(2) calorons and ensembles of them. While one part of the vortex connects the constituent dyons of a single caloron, another part is predominantly spatial and can be related to the twist that exists in the caloron gauge field. The latter part depends strongly on the caloron holonomy and degenerates to a plane between the dyons when the asymptotic Polyakov loop is traceless. Correspondingly, the spatial vortex in caloron ensembles is percolating in this case. This finding fits perfectly in the confinement scenario of vortices and shows that calorons are …
The free energy of a static quark-antiquark pair is obtained in an interacting dyon ensemble near the deconfinement temperature. Comparing the results with the noninteracting case, we observe that the string tension between the quark-antiquark pair increases for the interacting ensemble. As a result, the confinement temperature decreases.
We present arguments suggesting that large size overlapping instantons are the driving mechanism of the confinement-deconfinement phase transition at nonzero chemical potential mu. The arguments are based on the picture that instantons at very large chemical potential in the weak coupling regime are localized configurations with finite size rho~1/mu. At the same time, the same instantons at smaller chemical potential in the strong coupling regime are well represented by the so-called instanton-quarks with fractional topological charge 1/Nc. We estimate the critical chemical potential mu_c(T) w…
Topological phenomena in gauge theories have long been recognized as the driving force for chiral symmetry breaking and confinement. These phenomena can be conveniently investigated in the semi-classical picture, in which the topological charge is entirely carried by (anti-)self-dual gauge configurations. In such an approach, it has been shown that near the critical temperature, the non-zero expectation value of the Polyakov loop (holonomy) triggers the "Higgsing" of the color group, generating the splitting of instantons into $N_c$ self-dual dyons. A number of lattice simulations have provide…
Dense hadronic matter at low temperature is expected to be in crystal and at high density make a transition to a {\em chirally restored but color-confined} state which is a novel phase hitherto unexplored. This phase transition is predicted in both skyrmion matter in 4D and instanton matter in 5D, the former in the form of half-skyrmions and the latter in the form of half-instantons or dyons. We predict that when $K^-$'s are embedded in this half-skyrmion or half-instanton (dyonic) matter which may be reached not far above the normal density, there arises an enhanced attraction from the soft d…
In the holographic model of QCD, theta dependence sharply changes at the point of confinement deconfinement phase transition. In large N QCD such a change in theta behavior can be related to the breakdown of the instanton expansion at some critical temperature T_c. Associating this temperature with confinement-deconfinement phase transition leads to the description of the latter in terms of dissociation of instantons into the fractionally charged instanton quarks. To elucidate this picture, we introduce the nonvanishing chiral condensate in the deconfining phase and assume a specific lagrangia…
In a pilot study, we use the topological charge density defined by the eigenmodes of the overlap Dirac operator (with ultraviolet filtering by mode-truncation) to search for lumps of topological charge in SU(2) pure gauge theory. Augmenting this search with periodic and antiperiodic temporal boundary conditions for the overlap fermions, we demonstrate that the lumps can be classified either as calorons or as separate caloron constituents (dyons). Inside the topological charge clusters the (smeared) Polyakov loop is found to show the typical profile characteristic for calorons and dyons. This i…
We discuss an ensemble of topological solitons -- instanton-dyons and antidyons - in SU(2) pure gauge theory at finite temperatures above and below the deconfinement phase transition temperature. The main focus is on the combined effect of this ensemble on the so called effective holonomy potential, which drives the confinement/deconfinement phase transition. Using a simple model with excluded volume and lattice data on caloron density we find that repulsive part of the potential is robust enough to induce the phase transition at the right temperature. Model's predictions -- the holonomy poten…
We start with the relation between the chiral symmetry breaking and gauge field topology. New lattice result further enhance the notion of Zero Mode Zone, a very narrow strip of states with quasizero Dirac eigenvalues. Then we move to the issue of "origin of mass" and Brown-RHo scaling: a number of empirical facts contradicts to the idea that masses of quarks and such hadrons as $ρ,N$ decrease near $T_c$. We argue that while at $T=0$ the main contribution to the effective quark mass is chirally odd $m_{\snchi}$, near $T_c$ it rotates to chirally-even component $m_χ$, because "infinite clusters…
We investigate the dependence of four-dimensional SU(N) gauge theories on the topological theta term at finite temperature and, in particular, across the deconfinement transition. For this purpose, we exploit the lattice formulation of the theory and present numerical results for the expansion of the free energy up to O(theta^6), for N=3 and N=6. Our numerical analysis shows that the theta dependence of 4D SU(N) gauge theory experiences a drastic change across the deconfinement transition: the low-temperature phase is characterized by a large-N scaling with theta/N as relevant variable, while …
We propose a simple explanation for the connection between chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement in QCD at high temperature. In the Higgs description of the QCD vacuum both spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and effective gluon masses are generated by the condensate of a color octet quark-antiquark pair. The transition to the high temperature state proceeds by the melting of this condensate. Quarks and gluons become (approximately) massless at the same critical temperature. For instanton-dominated effective multiquark interactions and three light quarks with equal mass we find a firs…
We find an instanton (caloron) solution in the finite-temperature SU(2) gluon gas subjected to (imaginary, in Euclidean spacetime) rotation. We demonstrate that the rotation decreases the temperature of the caloron and leads to the delocalization of its topological charge over fractionally charged constituents. Furthermore, we show that in the high-temperature limit, the rapidly-rotating caloron becomes a ``circulon'': a self-dual monopole (dyon) possessing a spatial toroidal core.
These are lecture notes, which summarize the current status of the Semiclassical theory, as well as Monopoles, Instantons, Instanton-dyons and Flux tubes. The emphasis is on QCD and QCD-like theories (deformed QCD), although relevant points derived in Supersymmetric theories are also covered. While the actual lectures on which the notes are based were delivered in the fall 2018, the text evolved over the years and summarizes about 4 decades of development. One recent point added is the so called Poisson duality between monopoles and instanton-dyon approaches. It is made in a book format, with …
We describe a weak coupling realization of the deconfinement transition in gauge theory compactified on $R^3\times S^1$. We consider Yang-Mills theory with a single Weyl fermion of mass $m$ in the adjoint representation of the gauge group. The fermion is subject to periodic boundary conditions, $λ(0)=λ(L)$, where $L$ is the size of the circle $S_1$. This theory reduces to thermal Yang-Mills theory in the limit $m\to\infty$. In the limit $m\to 0$ the deconfinement transition can be studied using weak coupling methods. The analysis is based on semi-classical objects characterized by topological …
We conjecture that the confinement- deconfinement phase transition in QCD at large number of colors $N$ and $N_f\ll N$ at $T\neq 0$ and $μ\neq 0$ is triggered by the drastic change in $θ$ behavior. The conjecture is motivated by the holographic model of QCD where confinement -deconfinement phase transition indeed happens precisely at $T=T_c$ where $θ$ dependence experiences a sudden change in behavior. The conjecture is also supported by quantum field theory arguments when the instanton calculations (which trigger the $θ$ dependence) are under complete theoretical control for $T>T_c$, suddenly…
Instanton-dyons are topological solitons -- solutions of Yang-Mills equations -- which appear at non-trivial expectation value of $A_0$ at nonzero temperatures. Using the ensembles of those, generated in our previous work, for 2-color and 2-flavor QCD, below and above the deconfinement-chiral phase transition, we study the correlations between them, as well as fluctuations of several global charges in the sub-volumes of the total volume. The determined correlation lengths are the finite-$T$ extension of hadronic masses, such as that of $η'$ meson.
In this talk, we report our recent studies on an effective thermodynamic potential (Omega_eff) at finite temperature (T>0) and zero quark-chemical potential (mu_R=0), using the singular-gauge instanton solution and Matsubara formula for N_c=3 and N_f=2 in the chiral limit, i.e. m_q=0. The momentum-dependent constituent-quark mass is computed as a function of T, together with the Harrington-Shepard caloron solution in the large-N_c limit. In addition, we take into account the imaginary quark-chemical potential mu_I = A_4, indentified as the traced Polayakov-loop (Phi) as an order parameter for …
We have discussed the vacuum tunnelling in Friedberg-Lee model. The tunnelling coefficient is derived in the field configuration space by calculating the transition amplitude using the path integral under the stationary phase approximation and the dilute instanton gas approximation. By studying the tunnelling effect between the two degenerating vacuums at the critical temperature and chemical potential, we find that the system could be deconfined by tunnelling, which could possibly change the first order deconfinement phase transition to crossover.
We study the connection between monopoles and instantons in the Polyakov-like gauge, and the behavior of the monopole trajectories generated by instantons at finite temperature. The monopole trajectories become long and complicated at the zero-temperature which can be regarded as monopole condensation. On the other hand, they tend to become simple at finite temperature. It is suggested that such a change is related to the confinement-deconfinement phase transition.
We conjecture that the confinement- deconfinement phase transition in QCD at large number of colors N and N_f\ll N at T\neq 0 and μ\neq 0 is triggered by the drastic change in θbehavior. The conjecture is motivated by the holographic model of QCD where confinement -deconfinement phase transition indeed happens precisely at the value of temperature T=T_c where θdependence experiences a sudden change in behavior[1]. The conjecture is also supported by quantum field theory arguments when the instanton calculations (which trigger the θdependence) are under complete theoretical control for T>T_c, s…
We investigate the structure of confining and deconfining phases in SU(2) lattice gauge theory via persistent homology, which gives us access to the topology of a hierarchy of combinatorial objects constructed from given data. Specifically, we use filtrations by traced Polyakov loops, topological densities, holonomy Lie algebra fields, as well as electric and magnetic fields. This allows for a comprehensive picture of confinement. In particular, topological densities form spatial lumps which show signatures of the classical probability distribution of instanton-dyons. Signatures of well-separa…
Monopole-like objects have been identified in multiple lattice studies, and there is now a significant amount of literature on their importance in phenomenology. Some analytic indications of their role, however, are still missing. The 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles, originally derived in the Georgi-Glashow model, are an important dynamical ingredient in theories with extended supersymmetry ${\cal N} = 2,\,4$, and help explain the issues related with electric-magnetic duality. There is no such solution in QCD-like theories without scalar fields. However, all of these theories have instantons and t…
We argue that quite unusual properties of Quark-Gluon Plasma in the RHIC temperature domain $T=(1-2)T_c$ are consequences of the approximate equilibrium between electric and magnetic sectors reached above the deconfinement temperature. Already classical study of few body motion in a electric-magnetic plasma shows abnormally large scattering rate due to the so called ``magnetic bottle'' effect. Molecular dynamics simulation have found that equal mixture of electric and magnetic quasiparticles do produce plasmas of small viscosity and even smaller diffusion rate, comparable to what is needed to …
We study the phase diagram of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory with one adjoint Weyl fermion on R^3xS^1 as a function of the fermion mass m and the compactification scale L. This theory reduces to thermal pure gauge theory as m->infinity and to circle-compactified (non-thermal) supersymmetric gluodynamics in the limit m->0. In the m-L plane, there is a line of center symmetry changing phase transitions. In the limit m->infinity, this transition takes place at L_c=1/T_c, where T_c is the critical temperature of the deconfinement transition in pure Yang-Mills theory. We show that near m=0, the critical c…
We study the phase structure of N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on R^3XS^1, with massive gauginos, periodic around the S^1, with Sp(2N) (N>=2), Spin(N) (N>=5), G_2, F_4, E_6, E_7, E_8 gauge groups. As the gaugino mass m is increased, with S^1 size and strong coupling scale fixed, we find a first-order phase transition both for theories with and without a center. This semiclassically calculable transition is driven, as in SU(N) and G_2, arxiv.org/abs/1205.0290 and arxiv.org/abs/1212.1238, by a competition between monopole-instantons and exotic topological "molecules"---"neutral" or "magnet…
We introduce a duality between two-dimensional XY-spin models with symmetry-breaking perturbations and certain four-dimensional SU(2)and SU(2)/Z_2 gauge theories, compactified on a small spatial circle R^(1,2) x S^1, and considered at temperatures near the deconfinement transition. In a Euclidean set up, the theory is defined on R^2 x T^2. Similarly, thermal gauge theories of higher rank are dual to new families of "affine" XY-spin models with perturbations. For rank two, these are related to models used to describe the melting of a 2d crystal with a triangular lattice. The connection is made …
We conjecture that the phase transitions in QCD at large number of colours N\gg 1 is triggered by the drastic change in the instanton density. As a result of it, all physical observables also experience some sharp modification in the θbehaviour. This conjecture is motivated by the holographic model of QCD where confinement -deconfinement phase transition indeed happens precisely at temperature T=T_c where $θ$ dependence of the vacuum energy experiences a sudden change in behaviour: from N^2\cos(θ/N) at T<T_c to \cosθ\exp(-N) at T>T_c. This conjecture is also supported by recent lattice studies…
Using a standard cooling method for SU(3) lattice gauge fields constant Abelian magnetic field configurations are extracted after dyon-antidyon constituents forming metastable Q=0 configurations have annihilated. These so-called Dirac sheets, standard and non-standard ones, corresponding to the two U(1) subgroups of the SU(3) group, have been found to be stable if emerging from the confined phase, close to the deconfinement phase transition, with sufficiently nontrivial Polyakov loop values. On a finite lattice we find a nice agreement of the numerical observations with the analytic prediction…
We investigate the phase transitions characterized by deconfinement and restoration of chiral and axial symmetries,at finite temperature, in the framework of QCD inspired models. We compare the results obtained in the SU(2) Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with anomaly and in its extended version, the Entangled Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. In the last version, four-quark vertices with entanglement between the chiral condensate and the Polyakov loop are considered. The thermodynamics of the phase transitions, the meson spectrum, and in particular the convergence of axial and chiral partn…
Using the twisted partition function on R^3 x S^1, we argue that the deconfinement phase transition in pure Yang-Mills theory for all simple gauge groups is continuously connected to a quantum phase transition that can be studied in a controlled way. We explicitly consider two classes of theories, gauge theories with a center symmetry, such as SU(N_c) gauge theory for arbitrary N_c, and theories without a center symmetry, such as G_2 gauge theory. The mechanism governing the phase transition is universal and valid for all simple groups. The perturbative one-loop potential as well as monopole-i…
Nontrivial topological structures of non-Abelian gauge fields were discovered in the 1970's. Instanton solutions, describing vacuum tunneling through topological barriers, have fermionic zero modes which are at the origin of $^\prime$t Hooft effective Lagrangian. In the 1980's instanton ensembles have been used to explain chiral symmetry breaking. In the 1990's a large set of numerical simulations were performed deriving Euclidean correlation functions. The special role of scalar diquarks in nucleons, and color superconductivity in dense quark matter have been elucidated. In these lectures, we…
We study finite-temperature N=1 SU(2) super Yang-Mills theory, compactified on a spatial circle of size L with supersymmetric boundary conditions. In the semiclassical small-L regime, a deconfinement transition occurs at T_c <<1/L. The transition is due to a competition between non-perturbative topological "molecules"---magnetic and neutral bion-instantons---and electrically charged W-bosons and superpartners. Compared to deconfinement in non-supersymmetric QCD(adj) arXiv:1112.6389, the novelty is the relevance of the light modulus scalar field. It mediates interactions between neutral bions (…
We discuss compact (2+1)-dimensional Maxwell electrodynamics coupled to fermionic matter with N replica. For large enough N, the latter corresponds to an effective theory for the nearest neighbor SU(N) Heisenberg antiferromagnet, in which the fermions represent solitonic excitations known as spinons. Here we show that the spinons are deconfined for $N>N_c=36$, thus leading to an insulating state known as spin liquid. A previous analysis considerably underestimated the value of $N_c$. We show further that for $20<N\leq 36$ there can be either a confined or a deconfined phase, depending on the i…
