15283773
Structure of the QCD Vacuum as Seen by Lattice Simulations
This talk is a review of our studies of instantons and their properties as seen in our lattice simulations of SU(2) gauge theory. We have measured the topological susceptibility and the size distribution of instantons in t.he QCD vacuum. We have also investigated the properties of quarks moving in instanton background field configurations, where the sizes and locations of the instantons are taken from simulations of the full gauge theory. By themselves, these multi-instanton configurations do not confine quarks, but they induce chiral symmetry breaking.
16990128
SO (3) vortices as a mechanism for generating a mass gap in the 2D SU (2) principal chiral model
Abstract We propose a mechanism that can create a mass gap in the SU(2) chiral spin model at arbitrarily small temperatures. We give a sufficient condition for the mass gap to be non-zero in terms of the behaviour of an external Z (2) flux introduced by twisted boundary conditions. This condition in turn is rewritten in terms of an effective dual Ising model with an external magnetic field generated by SO(3) vortices. We show that having a non-zero magnetic field in the effective Ising model is sufficient for the SU(2) system to have a mass gap. We also show that certain vortex correlation inequalities, if satisfied, would imply a non-zero effective magnetic field. Finally, we give some plausibility arguments and Monte Carlo evidence for the required correlation inequalities.
118422773
Z(2) Excitations and Disorder in SU(2) Spin Models and Gauge Theories.
9446326
Some remarks on Abelian dominance
Abstract We used a renormalisation group based smoothing to address two questions related to abelian dominance. smoothing enable us to extract the abelian heavy-quark potential from time-like Wilson loops on Polyakov gauge projected configurations. We obtained a very small string tension which is inconsistent with the string tension extracted from Polyakov loop correlators. This shows that the Polyakov gauge projected abelian configurations do not have a consistent physical meaning. We also applied the smoothing on SU(2) configurations to test how sensitive abelian dominance in the maximal abelian gauge is to the short distance fluctuations. We found that on smoothed SU(2) configurations the abelian string tension was about 30% smaller than the SU(2) string tension which was unaffected by smoothing. This suggests that the approximate abelian dominance found with the Wilson action is probably an accident and it has no fundamental physical relevance.
121462735
The phase structure of two-dimensional pure lattice gauge theories with Chern term
We study the phase structure of two-dimensional pure lattice gauge theories with Wilson plus Chern action. Since the Chern term is purely imaginary it introduces a rich phase structure compared to the originally trivial Wilson model. The Zn model is considered in detail and it is proved that for n > 2 it has an infinite number of first order phase transitions. Confinements is maintained in pure phases but at the phase transition points the string tension vanishes for certain charges.
53865786
Monopoles and instantons in SU(2) lattice gauge theory
Abstract We investigate the monopole-instanton correlation in SU(2) lattice gauge theory using a renormalisation group inspired smoothing technique. We look at the properties of monopole clusters and their correlation with instantons. Since the action of the smoothed configurations is dominated by instantons we compare the smoothed Monte Carlo lattices to artificially reconstructed configurations with the same instanton content but no other fluctuations. Both parallel and randomly rotated (in group space) instanton ensembles are considered.
117909068
High temperature quark localization by Polyakov loops
We study the low eigenmodes of the overlap and staggered Dirac operator at high temperature. We show that the recently found localized quark modes obeying Poisson statistics are connected to physical gauge field objects with their size and density scaling in the continuum limit. The localized modes are also strongly correlated with large fluctuations of the Polyakov loop. Based on that we construct a random matrix model of the low Dirac modes inspired by dimensional reduction. Our model reproduces the Poisson to random matrix transition seen in the lattice Dirac spectrum.
118554181
Poisson Statistics in the High Temperature QCD Dirac Spectrum
At low temperature in the epsilon regime of QCD the low-end of the Dirac spectrum is described by random matrix theory. In contrast, there has been no similarly well established staistical description in the high temperature, chirally symmetric phase. Using lattice simulations we show that at high temperature a band of extremely localized eigenmodes appear at the low-end of the Dirac spectrum. The corresponding eigenvalues are statistically independent and obey a generalized Poisson distribution. Higher up in the spectrum the Poisson distribution rapidly crosses over into the bulk distribution predicted by the random matrix ensemble with the corresponding symmetry. Our results are based on quenched lattice simulations with the overlap and the staggered Dirac operator done well above the critical temperature at several volumes and values of $N_t$. We also discuss the crucial role played by the fermionic boundary condition and the Polyakov-loop in this phenomenon.
12447919
Absence of correlations in the QCD dirac spectrum at high temperature.
I propose a simple model of the distribution of the small eigenvalues of the QCD Dirac operator well above the finite temperature phase transition where chiral symmetry is restored and the spectral density at zero vanishes. Assuming the absence of correlations between different regions of the low-lying spectrum I derive analytic formulas for the distribution of the first two eigenvalues. I find good agreement with data obtained using the overlap Dirac operator in quenched SU(2) lattice simulations. This suggests that if chiral symmetry is restored spectral correlations are not important and all the statistical properties of the spectrum are encoded in the spectral density.
15393945
Gapless Dirac spectrum at high temperature
Using the overlap Dirac operator I show that, contrary to some expectations, even well above the critical temperature there is not necessarily a gap in the Dirac spectrum in pure SU(2) gauge theory. This happens when the Polyakov loop and the fermion boundary condition combine to give close to periodic boundary condition for the fermions in the time direction. In this Polyakov loop sector there is a non-vanishing density of Dirac eigenvalues around zero which implies that chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken. I demonstrate this both directly and also by finding good agreement with the random matrix theory prediction for the distribution of the lowest Dirac eigenvalue. I show that the chiral condensate increases with the tempereture therefore it is very unlikely to be explained by topological fluctuations that become rapidly smaller above Tc. Finally I show that it is only a small fraction of the lowest Dirac eigenvalues that decide which Polyakov loop sector is favored by the fermion determinant if dynamical fermions are turned on. This provides a qualitative understanding of how the loss of confinement above Tc implies the restoration of chiral symmetry.
16594164
Low-lying fermion modes: Dynamical versus quenched
Abstract We compare the low-lying eigenmodes of the O(a) improved Wilson-Dirac operator on quenched and dynamical configurations and investigate methods of probing the topological properties of gauge configurations.