Particle theory

Abstract:

We study the detailed properties of [Formula presented] domain walls in the deconfined high-temperature phase of the [Formula presented] SU(2) gauge theory. These walls are studied both by computer simulations of the lattice theory and by one-loop perturbative calculations. The latter are carried out both in the continuum and on the lattice. We find that leading order perturbation theory reproduces the detailed properties of these domain walls remarkably accurately even at temperatures where the effective dimensionless expansion parameter [Formula presented] is close to unity. The quantities studied include the surface tension, the action density profiles, roughening, and the electric screening mass. It is only for the last quantity that we find an exception to the precocious success of perturbation theory. All this shows that, despite the presence of infrared divergences at higher orders, high-[Formula presented] perturbation theory can be an accurate calculational tool. © 1997 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

We fix SU(2) lattice gauge fields to the maximally Abelian gauge in both three and four dimensions. We extract the corresponding U(1) fields and monopole current densities and calculate separately the confining string tensions arising from these U(1) fields and monopole “condensates.” We generate multiple Gribov copies and study how the U(1) fields and monopole distributions vary between these different copies. As expected, we find substantial variations in the number of monopoles, their locations, and in the values of the U(1) field strengths. The string tensions extracted from “extreme” Gribov copies also differ but this difference appears to be no more than about 20%. We also directly compare the fields of different Gribov copies. We find that on the distance scales relevant to confinement, the U(1) and monopole fluxes that disorder Wilson loops are highly correlated between these different Gribov copies. All this suggests that while there is indeed a Gribov copy problem the resulting ambiguity is, in this gauge and for the study of confinement, of limited importance. © 1997 The American Physical Society.