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Uncovering Low-Dimensional Topological Structure in the QCD Vacuum

I. Horvath·S. J. Dong·T. Draper·K. F. Liu·N. Mathur·F. X. Lee·H. B. Thacker·J. B. Zhang
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Abstract

Recently, we have pointed out that sign-coherent 4-dimensional structures can not dominate topological charge fluctuations in QCD vacuum at all scales. Here we show that an enhanced lower-dimensional coherence is possible. In pure SU(3) lattice gauge theory we find that in a typical equilibrium configuration about 80% of space-time points are covered by two oppositely-charged connected structures built of elementary 3-dimensional coherent hypercubes. The hypercubes within the structure are connected through 2-dimensional common faces. We suggest that this coherence is a manifestation of a low-dimensional order present in the QCD vacuum. The use of a topological charge density associated with Ginsparg-Wilson fermions ("chiral smoothing") is crucial for observing this structure.

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I. Horvath, S. J. Dong, T. Draper, K. F. Liu, N. Mathur, F. X. Lee, H. B. Thacker, J. B. Zhang. 2002-12-09. Uncovering Low-Dimensional Topological Structure in the QCD Vacuum. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812704269_0047

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