Tübingen 2003 – scientific programme

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HK: Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 35: Plenarsitzung

HK 35.1: Plenary Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2003, 08:30–09:00, P

Confinement, deconfinement and the vortex structure of the vacuum — •Kurt Langfeld — Institut für Theor. Physik, Univ. Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen

The expression No-dqConfinementNo-dq summarizes the experimental observations that the fundamental constituents of QCD, the quarks and gluons, are not observed in the particle spectrum. The explanation of the confinement mechanism is one of the big challenges of quantum field theory. In the recent past, computer simulations of lattice Yang-Mills theory have shown that topological defects, in particular vortices, can act as the confiners. I will discuss in some detail the relation between the confining capabilities of Yang-Mills theory and the structure of its vortex skeleton. It is shown that the underlying vortex theory correctly reproduces the deconfinement temperature. Results of computer simulations are presented which provide evidence that the deconfinement phase transition can be understood as a vortex depercolation transition. Implications for the quark-gluon plasma phase, presently studied in collision experiments (RHIC), are briefly addressed.