Monopole clusters, center vortices, and confinement in a Z(2) gauge-Higgs system

Abstract

We propose to use the different kinds of vacua of the gauge theories coupled to matter as a laboratory to test confinement ideas of pure Yang-Mills theories. In particular, the very poor overlap of the Wilson loop with the broken string states supports the 't Hooft and Mandelstam confinement criteria. However in the Z(2) gauge-Higgs model we use as a guide we find that the condensation of monopoles and center vortices is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for confinement.

Comments: 13 pages, 6 figures, minor changes, version to be published on Phys. Rev. D