Monopoles and vortices in Yang-Mills plasma

Abstract

We discuss the role of magnetic degrees of freedom in Yang-Mills plasma at temperatures above and of order of the critical temperature Tc. While at zero temperature the magnetic degrees of freedom are condensed and electric degrees of freedom are confined, at the point of the phase transition both magnetic and electric degrees of freedom are released into the thermal vacuum. This phenomenon might explain the observed unusual properties of the plasma.

Comments: 15 pages, 5 figures; based on talks at 13th Lomonosov Conference, Moscow, Russia, August 23 - 29, 2007; and at the conference "Strong Coupling: from Lattice to AdS/CFT", Florence, Italy, June 3 - 5, 2008. To appear in a special issue of Physics of Atomic Nuclei