Center-stabilized Yang-Mills theory: Confinement and large N volume independence
- SLAC and Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1560 (United States)
We examine a double trace deformation of SU(N) Yang-Mills theory which, for large N and large volume, is equivalent to unmodified Yang-Mills theory up to O(1/N{sup 2}) corrections. In contrast to the unmodified theory, large N volume independence is valid in the deformed theory down to arbitrarily small volumes. The double trace deformation prevents the spontaneous breaking of center symmetry which would otherwise disrupt large N volume independence in small volumes. For small values of N, if the theory is formulated on R{sup 3}xS{sup 1} with a sufficiently small compactification size L, then an analytic treatment of the nonperturbative dynamics of the deformed theory is possible. In this regime, we show that the deformed Yang-Mills theory has a mass gap and exhibits linear confinement. Increasing the circumference L or number of colors N decreases the separation of scales on which the analytic treatment relies. However, there are no order parameters which distinguish the small and large radius regimes. Consequently, for small N the deformed theory provides a novel example of a locally four-dimensional pure-gauge theory in which one has analytic control over confinement, while for large N it provides a simple fully reduced model for Yang-Mills theory. The construction is easily generalized to QCD and other QCD-like theories.
- OSTI ID:
- 21254189
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 78, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.78.065035; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Yang-Mills theories with chiral matter at strong coupling
On Yang--Mills Theories with Chiral Matter at Strong Coupling