Quark Confinement and the Renormalization Group

Abstract

Recent approaches to quark confinement are reviewed, with an emphasis on their connection to renormalization group methods. Basic concepts related to confinement are introduced: the string tension, Wilson loops and Polyakov lines, string breaking, string tension scaling laws, center symmetry breaking, and the deconfinement transition at non-zero temperature. Current topics discussed include confinement on $R^3\times S^1$, the real-space renormalization group, the functional renormalization group, and the Schwinger-Dyson equation approach to confinement.

Comments: 22 pages; report from the INT Workshop "New applications of the renormalization group in nuclear, particle, and condensed matter physics", held February 22-26 2010