On the relevance of center vortices to QCD

Abstract

In a numerical experiment, we remove center vortices from an ensemble of lattice SU(2) gauge configurations. This removal adds short-range disorder. Nevertheless, we observe long-range order in the modified ensemble: confinement is lost and chiral symmetry is restored (together with trivial topology), proving that center vortices are responsible for both phenomena. As for the Abelian monopoles, they survive but their percolation properties are lost.

Comments: 4 pages, 5 figures; discussion expanded, text compressed... to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett