We study the T-μ phase diagram of anisotropic media, created in heavy-ion collisions (HIC). Such a statement of the problem is due to several indications that this media is anisotropic just after HIC. To study T-μ phase diagram we use holographic methods. To take into account the anisotropy we use an anisotropic black brane solutions for a bottom-up QCD approach in 5-dim Einstein-dilaton-two-Maxwell model constructed in our previous work. We calculate the minimal surfaces of the corresponding probing open string world-sheet in anisotropic backgrounds with various temperatures and chemical potentials. The dynamical wall (DW) locations, providing the quark confinement, depend on the orientation of the quark pairs, that gives a crossover transition between confinement/deconfinement phases in the dual gauge theory.
We describe a monopole-like order parameter for the confinement-deconfinement transition in gauge theories where dynamical charges and monopoles coexist. It has been recently proposed in a collaboration with J. Froehlich. It avoids an inconsistency in the treatment of small scales present in earlier definitions of monopole fields by respecting Dirac's quantization condition for electromagnetic fluxes. An application to SU(2) lattice Yang-Mills theory is outlined, naturally fitting in the 't Hooft scenario for confinement.
We consider four dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories that are S-confining, that is they are dual to a Wess-Zumino model. S-confining theories with a simple gauge group have been classified. We prove all the S-confining dualities in the list, when the matter fields transform in rank-$1$ and/or rank-$2$ representations. Our only assumptions are the S-confining dualities for $SU(N)$ with $N+1$ flavors and for $Usp(2N)$ with $2N+4$ fundamentals. The strategy consists in a sequence of deconfinements and re-confinements. We pay special attention to the explicit superpotential at each step.
We study analytical solutions of charged black holes and thermally charged AdS with generalized warped factors in Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton system. We calculate Euclidean action for charged AdS and thermally charged AdS. The actions in both backgrounds are regularized by the method of background subtraction. The study of phase transition between charged black hole and thermally charged AdS gives an insight to the confinement/deconfinement transition. The plots of grand potential vs temperature and chemical potential vs transition temperature are obtained.
We argue that, at finite temperature, parity invariant non-compact electrodynamics with massive electrons in 2+1 dimensions can exist in both confined and deconfined phases. We show that an order parameter for the confinement-deconfinement phase transition is the Polyakov loop operator whose average measures the free energy of a test charge that is not an integral multiple of the electron charge. The effective field theory for the Polyakov loop operator is a 2-dimensional Euclidean scalar field theory with a global discrete symmetry $Z$, the additive group of the integers. We argue that the re…
We study the thermodynamics of the hard wall model, which consists in the introduction of an infrared cut-off in asymptotically AdS spaces. This is a toy model for confining backgrounds in the context of the gauge/gravity correspondence. We use holographic renormalization and reproduce the existence of a Hawking Page phase transition recently discussed by Herzog. We also show that the entropy jumps from $N^0$ to $N^2$, which reinforces the interpretation of this transition as the gravity dual of confinement/deconfinement. We also show that similar results hold for the phenomenologically motiva…
The 1+1 dimensional bosonised Schwinger model with a generalized gauge invariant regularisation has been studied in a noncommutative scenario to investigate the fate of the transition from confinement to deconfinement observed in the commutative setting. We show that though the fuzziness of space time introduces new features in the confinement scenario, it does not affect the deconfining limit.
Under a Scherk-Schwarz compactification, the AdS soliton and black brane provide a dual description to a confinement/deconfinement phase transition. We extend this construction to asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes. In particular, we show that there must be a phase transition between the soliton and black hole if the solutions exist. We also construct these solutions numerically and compute the phase diagram.
Non-central heavy ion collisions lead to the production of a quark gluon plasma with angular momentum. We investigate, using holographic AdS/QCD models, how does rotation of the medium affects the confinement/deconfinement transition temperature $T_c$. In holographic models, this transition is represented by a Hawking-Page process involving two asymptotically anti-de Sitter spaces. The plasma is represented here by extending the holographic approach to anti-de Sitter spaces with cylindrical symmetry. Then, the rotation of the medium is introduced through a Lorentz boost. We consider hard and s…
We give a new criterion of quark confinement/deconfinement by deriving a low-energy effective theory of QCD. The effective theory can explain Abelian dominance in low-energy physics of QCD, especially, quark confinement. Finally, we apply the above criterion to the large flavor QCD and discuss its phase structure. The result suggests the existence of conformal phase.
In hep-th/0402219 we considered large N zero-coupling d-dimensional U(N) gauge theories, with N_f matter fields in the fundamental representation on a compact spatial manifold S^{d-1}x time, with N_f/N finite. This class of theories undergo a 3rd order deconfinement transition. As a consequence it was proposed that the dual string theory has a 3rd order phase-transition to a black hole at high temperature. In this paper we argue that the same conclusions are valid for such theories at any finite order in perturbation theory in the 't Hooft coupling lambda and N_f/N. It is conjectured that this…
Cavitation is a process where the viscous terms in a relativistic fluid result in reducing the effective pressure, thus facilitating the nucleation of bubbles of a stable phase. The effect is particularly pronounced in the vicinity of a (weak) first-order phase transition. We use the holographic correspondence to study cavitation in a strongly coupled planar cascading gauge theory plasma close to the confinement/deconfinement phase transition. While in this particular model the shift of the deconfinement temperature due to cavitation does not exceed 5%, we speculate that cavitation might be im…
We consider, from several complementary perspectives, the physics of confinement and deconfinement in the 2+1 dimensional Georgi-Glashow model. Polyakov's monopole plasma and 't Hooft's vortex condensation are discussed first. We then discuss the physics of confining strings at zero temperature. We review the Hamiltonian variational approach and show how the linear confining potential arises in this framework. The second part of this review is devoted to study of the deconfining phase transition. We show that the mechanism of the transition is the restoration of 't Hooft's magnetic symmetry in…
We study the subregion complexity in a semi-analytical holographic QCD model. Two cases with different warped factor are considered and both can realize confinement-deconfinement transition. By studying the behavior of the renormalized holographic complexity density $\hat{\cal C}$ versus the subregion length scale $\ell$, we find that for both cases, $\hat{\cal C}$ always experiences a discontinuity at certain critical value $\ell_c$ in confinement phases, while it is always continuous in deconfinement phases. This property may be seen as a signal to characterize confinement or deconfinement p…
We study confinement-deconfinement phase transition for heavy quarks in a bottom-up holographic QCD model. We consider a black hole background in an Einstein-Maxwell-scalar system and add probe open strings to the background. Combining the various configurations of the open strings and the phase structure of the black hole background itself, we obtain the confinement-deconfinement phase diagram for heavy quarks in the holographic QCD model.
We briefly outline several main results concerning various new physically relevant features found in gravity -- both ordinary Einstein or $f(R)=R+R^2$ gravity in the first-order formalism, coupled to a special kind of nonlinear electrodynamics containing a square-root of the standard Maxwell Lagrangian and known to produce charge confinement in flat spacetime.
We propose a new quantity which describes the confinement-deconfinement transition based on topological properties of QCD. The quantity which we call the quark number holonomy is defined as the integral of the quark number susceptibility along the closed loop of $θ$ where $θ$ is the dimensionless imaginary chemical potential. Expected behavior of the quark number holonomy at finite temperature is discussed and its asymptotic behaviors are shown.
The problem of the phase transition of a Z(3) spin system is a complex issue. A numerical simulation in the framework of the mean field theory using the Metropolis algorithm reveals: (a) the existence of second order phase transition with a degenerated critical point which could be considered as a state of resonance (b) hysteresis phenomena which are accompanied with tricritical crossover around the end point of first order transition. Based on these results we propose a scenario about confinement-deconfinement phase transition in SU(3) symmetry of color QCD which, as it is known, has the same…
We study the gravity dual of four dimensional pure Yang-Mills theory through D4 branes, as proposed by Witten (holographic QCD). In this holographic QCD, it has been widely believed that the confinement phase in the pure Yang-Mills theory corresponds to the AdS D4 soliton in gravity and the deconfinement phase corresponds to the black D4 brane. We inspect this conjecture carefully and show that the correspondence between the black D4 brane and the deconfinement phase is not correct. Instead, by using a slightly different set up, we find an alternative gravity solution called "localized soliton…
We investigate the confinement-deconfinement transition at finite temperature in terms of the probability distribution of Polyakov-loop complex-phase via the Jensen-Shannon divergence. The Jensen-Shannon divergence quantifies the difference of two probability distributions, namely the target and reference probability distributions. We adopt the complex-phase distributions of the spatially averaged Polyakov loop at $μ/T=0$ and $μ/T=iπ/3$ as the target and reference distributions, respectively. It is shown that the Jensen-Shannon divergence has the inflection point when the target system approac…
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…
Band-inverted electron-hole bilayers support quantum spin Hall insulator and exciton condensate phases. We investigate such a bilayer in an external magnetic field. We show that the interlayer correlations lead to formation of a helical quantum Hall exciton condensate state. In contrast to the chiral edge states of the quantum Hall exciton condensate in electron-electron bilayers, existence of the counterpropagating edge modes results in formation of a ground state spin-texture not supporting gapless single-particle excitations. This feature has deep consequences for the low energy behavior of…
We give another derivation of quark confinement in QCD from the viewpoint of the low-energy effective Abelian gauge theory of QCD obtained via Abelian projection. It is based on the recently discovered Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition in the four-dimensional Abelian gauge theory. Moreover, we show that there exists a critical gauge coupling constant in QCD, above which confinement set in and below which there is no confinement. In a SU(N) gauge theory with $N_f$ flavored fermions, we argue that this leads to a critical value of fermion flavors $N_f^c$ for the confinement as wel…
We discuss in some detail the properties of gravity (including f(R)-gravity) coupled to non-standard nonlinear gauge field system containing a square root of the usual Maxwell Lagrangian. The latter is known to produce in flat spacetime a QCD-like confinement. Inclusion of gravity triggers various physically interesting effects: new mechanism for dynamical generation of cosmological constant; non-standard black hole solutions with constant vacuum electric field and with "hedge-hog"-type spacetime asymptotics, which are shown to obey the first law of black hole thermodynamics; new "tubelike" so…
In this note we study the first-order Hawking-Page phase transition of R-charged black hole in truncated Anti-de Sitter space of various dimensions. This corresponds to confinement/deconfinement phase transition in the dual gauge field theory with fixed chemical potential. We demonstrate in general this critical temperature decreases with increasing charge density but with decreasing IR cutoff.
We present new anisotropic black brane solutions in 5D Einstein-dilaton-two-Maxwell system. The anisotropic background is specified by an arbitrary dynamical exponent $ν$, a nontrivial warp factor, a non-zero dilaton field, a non-zero time component of the first Maxwell field and a non-zero longitudinal magnetic component of the second Maxwell field. The blackening function supports the Van der Waals-like phase transition between small and large black holes for a suitable first Maxwell field charge. The isotropic case corresponding to $ν= 1$ and zero magnetic field reproduces previously known …
In a spontaneously dimerized quantum antiferromagnet, spin-1/2 excitations (spinons) are confined in pairs by strings akin to those confining quarks in non-abelian gauge theories. The system has multiple degenerate ground states (vacua) and domain walls between regions of different vacua. For two vacua, we demonstrate that spinons on a domain wall are liberated, in a mechanism strikingly similar to domain-wall deconfinement of quarks in variants of quantum chromodynamics. This observation not only establishes a novel phenomenon in quantum magnetism, but also provides a new direct link between …
In this paper we consider the influence of relativistic rotation on the confinement/deconfinement transition in gluodynamics within lattice simulation. We perform the simulation in the reference frame which rotates with the system under investigation, where rotation is reduced to external gravitational field. To study the confinement/deconfinement transition the Polyakov loop and its susceptibility are calculated for various lattice parameters and the values of angular velocities which are characteristic for heavy-ion collision experiments. Different types of boundary conditions (open, periodi…
We present numerical evidence for a transition between the Klebanov-Strassler background and a solution describing a black hole in the class of cascading solutions in the chirally restored phase. We also present a number of properties of this solution, including the running of the coupling constant, the viscosity to entropy ratio and the drag force on a quark moving in this background.
We study the confinement/deconfinement transition in the D0-brane matrix model (often called the BFSS matrix model) and its one-parameter deformation (the BMN matrix model) numerically by lattice Monte Carlo simulations. Our results confirm general expectations from the dual string/M-theory picture for strong coupling. In particular, we observe the confined phase in the BFSS matrix model, which is a nontrivial consequence of the M-theory picture. We suggest that these models provide us with an ideal framework to study the Schwarzschild black hole, M-theory, and furthermore, the parameter regio…
We consider large N zero-coupling d-dimensional U(N) gauge theories, with N_f matter fields in the fundamental representation on a compact spatial manifold S^{d-1} x time, with N_f/N finite. The Gauss' law constraint induces interactions among the fields, in spite of the zero-coupling. This class of theories undergo a 3rd order deconfinement phase transition at a temperature T_c proportional to the inverse length scale of the compact manifold. The low-temperature phase has a free-energy of {\cal O} (N^2_f), interpreted as that of a gas of (color singlet) mesons and glueballs. The high-temperat…
The one-dimensional lattice Schwinger model has recently been realized by using bosons in optical lattices. This model contains both confinement and deconfinement phases, whose phase diagram is controlled by the mass of the matter field and the topological angle. Since varying the mass of matter field is straightforward experimentally, we propose how to tune the topological angle, allowing accessing the entire phase diagram. We propose that direct experimental evidence of confinement and deconfinement can be obtained by measuring whether a physical charge is localized around a fixed gauge char…
In the holographic AdS/QCD approach, the confinement/deconfinement transition is associated with the Hawking-Page transition of a thermal anti-de Sitter (AdS) space to an AdS black hole. In the case of the hard wall model, the thermal transition takes place in the planar AdS thanks to the introduction of an infrared cut-off in the geometry. The corresponding thermodynamic entropy of the $SU(N) $ gauge theory jumps from proportional to $N^0$ in the confined hadronic phase to proportional to $N^2$ in the plasma phase, corresponding to the presence of the color degrees of freedom. The Hawking-Pag…
A family of deformed black branes is employed to examine the confinement/deconfinement phase transition in AdS/QCD. The holographic entanglement entropy (HEE) plays the role of the order parameter driving the confinement/deconfinement phase transition. The binding energy of quark-antiquark bound states and the critical length that makes a null variation of the HEE, together with the critical temperature separating the deconfined quark-gluon plasma to the confined hadronic phase, are discussed in the deformed black brane background, matching current experimental hadronic data.
We discuss the phase structure of N D4 branes wrapped on a temporal (Euclidean) and a spatial circle, in terms of the near-horizon AdS geometries. This system has been studied previously to understand four dimensional pure SU(N) Yang-Mills theory (YM4) through holography. In the usual treatment of the subject, the phase transition between the AdS soliton and the black D4 brane is interpreted as the strong coupling continuation of the confinement/deconfinement transition in YM4. We show that this interpretation is not valid, since the black D4 brane and the deconfinement phase of YM4 have diffe…
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…
A model for the infrared sector of Yang-Mills theory based on magnetic vortices represented by (closed) random surfaces is investigated using lattice Monte Carlo methods. The random surfaces are governed by a surface area action and a curvature action. The model generates a finite-temperature deconfinement transition; the coupling constants of the model can be chosen such as to reproduce the SU(2) Yang-Mills ratio of the deconfinement temperature to the square root of the zero-temperature string tension, T_c / sqrt{sigma_0} =0.69. This yields a physical trajectory in the space of coupling cons…
We study numerically two versions of the monopole creation operators proposed by Frohlich and Marchetti. The disadvantage of the old version of the monopole creation operator is due to visibility of the Dirac string entering the definition of the creation operator in the theories with coexisting electric and magnetic charges. This problem does not exist for the new creation operator which is rather complicated. Using the Abelian Higgs model with a compact gauge field we show that both definitions of the monopole creation operator can serve as order parameters for the confinement--deconfinement…
Recently, an indicative evidence of a stochastic process, reported by the NANOGrav Collaboration based on the analysis of 12.5-year pulsar timing array data which might be interpreted as a potential stochastic gravitational wave signal, has aroused keen interest of theorists. The first-order color charge confinement phase transition at the QCD scale could be one of the cosmological sources for the NANOGrav signal. If the phase transition is flavor dependent and happens sequentially, it is important to find that what kind of QCD matter in which the first-order confinement/deconfinement phase tr…
We give an analytical derivation of the confinement/deconfinement phase transition at finite temperature in the $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory in the $D$-dimensional space time for $D>2$. For this purpose, we use a novel reformulation of the Yang-Mills theory which allows the gauge-invariant gluonic mass term, and calculate analytically the effective potential of the Polyakov loop average concretely for the $SU(2)$ and $SU(3)$ Yang-Mills theories by including the gauge-invariant dynamical gluonic mass $M$. For $D=4$, we give an estimate on the transition temperature $T_d$ as the ratio $T_d/M$ to th…
We consider f(R) = R + R^2 gravity interacting with a dilaton and a special non-standard form of nonlinear electrodynamics containing a square-root of ordinary Maxwell Lagrangian. In flat spacetime the latter arises due to a spontaneous breakdown of scale symmetry and produces an effective charge-confining potential. In the R + R^2 gravity case, upon deriving the explicit form of the equivalent local "Einstein frame" Lagrangian action, we find several physically relevant features due to the combined effect of the gauge field and gravity nonlinearities such as: appearance of dynamical effective…
Spatial confinement-deconfinement transition in accelerated gluodynamics within lattice simulation
Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research（波戈留博夫理论物理实验室，俄罗斯核联合研究所）；Pacific Quantum Center, Far Eastern Federal University（太平洋量子中心，远东联邦大学）；Institute of Automation and Control Processes, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Science（自动化与控制过程研究所，俄罗斯科学院远东分院）
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…
The center vortex model for the infrared sector of Yang-Mills theory, previously studied for the SU(2) gauge group, is extended to SU(3). This model is based on the assumption that vortex world-surfaces can be viewed as random surfaces in Euclidean space-time. The confining properties are investigated, with a particular emphasis on the finite-temperature deconfining phase transition. The model predicts a very weak first order transition, in agreement with SU(3) lattice Yang-Mills theory, and also reproduces a consistent behavior of the spatial string tension in the deconfined phase. The geomet…
Basing on a semiclassical picture of dyons, we present a nonperturbative model of a pure Yang--Mills theory at any temperatures, for an arbitrary simple gauge group. We argue that at low temperatures dyons drive the Yang--Mills system for all groups to a phase where the `eigenphases' of the Polyakov line are, as a vector, proportional to the Weyl vector being the half sum of positive roots. For most gauge groups it means confinement, in particular for `quarks' in any N-ality nonzero representation of the SU(N) gauge group. At a critical temperature there is a 1st order phase transition for all…
We propose a novel approach to the confinement-deconfinement transition in Yang-Mills theories in the context of gauge-fixed calculations. The method is based on a background-field generalisation of the Landau gauge (to which it reduces at vanishing temperature) with a given, center-symmetric background. This is to be contrasted with most implementations of background field methods in gauge theories, where one uses a variable, self-consistent background. Our proposal is a bona fide gauge fixing that can easily be implemented on the lattice and in continuum approaches. The resulting gauge-fixed…
We study within Palatini formalism an f(R)-gravity with f(R)= R + αR^2 interacting with a dilaton and a special kind of nonlinear gauge field system containing a square-root of the standard Maxwell term, which is known to produce confinement in flat space-time. Reformulating the model in the physical Einstein frame we find scalar field effective potential with a flat region where the confinement dynamics disappears, while in other regions it remains intact. The effective gauge couplings as well as the induced cosmological constant become dynamical. In particular, a conventional Maxwell kinetic…
We compare different Polyakov loop actions yielding effective descriptions of finite-temperature SU(2) Yang-Mills theory on the lattice. The actions are motivated by a simultaneous strong-coupling and character expansion obeying center symmetry and include both Ising and Ginzburg-Landau type models. To keep things simple we limit ourselves to nearest-neighbor interactions. Some truncations involving the most relevant characters are studied within a novel mean-field approximation. Using inverse Monte-Carlo techniques based on exact geometrical Schwinger-Dyson equations we determine the effectiv…
We analyze the holographic entanglement entropy in a soliton background with Wilson lines and derive a relation analogous to the first law of thermodynamics. The confinement/deconfinement phase transition occurs due to the competition of two minimal surfaces. The entropic c function probes the confinement/deconfinement phase transition. It is sensitive to the degrees of freedom (DOF) smaller than the size of a spatial circle. When the Wilson line becomes large, the entropic c function becomes non-monotonic as a function of the size and does not satisfy the usual c-theorem. We analyze the entan…
We study confinement-deconfinement phase transition in a holographic soft-wall QCD model. By solving the Einstein-Maxwell-scalar system analytically, we obtain the phase structure of the black hole backgrounds. We then impose probe open strings in such background to investigate the confinement-deconfinement phase transition from different open string configurations under various temperatures and chemical potentials. Furthermore, we study the Wilson loop by calculating the minimal surface of the probing open string world-sheet and obtain the Cornell potential in confinement phase analytically.
We re-examine by numerical simulation the phase structure of the three-dimensional Abelian lattice gauge theory (LGT) with $Z(2)$ gauge fields coupled to $Z(2)$-valued Higgs fields. Concretely, we explore two different order parameters which are able to distinguish the three phases of the theory: (i) the Fredenhagen-Marcu operator used to discriminate between deconfinement and confinement/Higgs phases and (ii) the Greensite-Matsuyama overlap operator proposed recently to distinguish confinement and Higgs phases. The latter operator is an analog of the overlap Edwards-Anderson order parameter f…
