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arXiv · 2302.00376

Boundary states and Non-Abelian Casimir effect in lattice Yang-Mills theory

Maxim N. Chernodub·Vladimir A. Goy·Alexander V. Molochkov·Alexey S. Tanashkin
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Abstract

Using first-principle numerical simulations, we investigate the Casimir effect in zero-temperature SU(3) lattice gauge theory in 3+1 spacetime dimensions. The Casimir interaction between perfect chromometallic mirrors reveals the presence of a new gluonic state with the mass $m_{\mathrm{gt}} = 1.0(1)\sqrt{\sigma} = 0.49(5)\,\mathrm{GeV} = 0.29(3) M_{0^{++}}$ which is substantially lighter than the $0^{++}$ groundstate glueball. We call this excitation ``glueton'' interpreting it as a non-perturbative colorless state of gluons bound to their negatively colored images in the chromometallic mirror. The glueton is a gluonic counterpart of a surface electron-hole exciton in semiconductors. We also show that a heavy quark is attracted to the neutral chromometallic mirror, thus supporting the existence of a ``quarkiton'' (a ``quark exciton'') colorless state in QCD, which is formed by a single quark with its anti-quark image in the chromometallic mirror. Analogies with edge modes in topological insulators and boundary states of fractional vortices in multi-component condensates are highlighted.

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Maxim N. Chernodub, Vladimir A. Goy, Alexander V. Molochkov, Alexey S. Tanashkin. 2023-02-01. Boundary states and Non-Abelian Casimir effect in lattice Yang-Mills theory. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.108.014515

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