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arXiv · 2312.14340

Numerical evidence for fractional topological objects in SU(3) gauge theory

Jackson A. Mickley·Waseem Kamleh·Derek B. Leinweber
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Abstract

The continued development of models that propose the existence of fractional topological objects in the Yang-Mills vacuum has called for a quantitative method to study the topological structure of $\mathrm{SU}(N)$ gauge theory. We present an original numerical algorithm that can identify distinct topological objects in the nontrivial ground-state fields and approximate the net charge contained within them. This analysis is performed for $\mathrm{SU(3)}$ colour at a range of temperatures crossing the deconfinement phase transition, allowing for an assessment of how the topological structure evolves with temperature. We find a promising consistency with the instanton-dyon model for the structure of the QCD vacuum at finite temperature. Several other quantities, such as object density and radial size, are also analysed to elicit a further understanding of the fundamental structure of ground-state gluon fields.

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Jackson A. Mickley, Waseem Kamleh, Derek B. Leinweber. 2023-12-22. Numerical evidence for fractional topological objects in SU(3) gauge theory. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.109.094507

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