Order, Disorder and Confinement

Abstract

Studying the order of the chiral transition for $N_f=2$ is of fundamental importance to understand the mechanism of color confinement. We present results of a numerical investigation on the order of the transition by use of a novel strategy in finite size scaling analysis. The specific heat and a number of susceptibilities are compared with the possible critical behaviours. A second order transition in the O(4) and O(2) universality classes are excluded. Substantial evidence emerges for a first order transition. Results are in agreement with those found by studying the scaling properties of a disorder parameter related to the dual superconductivity mechanism of color confinement.

Comments: 7 pages, 11 figures. Talk given at the International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics: QCD@Work 2005, Conversano, Italy, 16-20 June 2005