Connecting Polyakov Loops to Hadrons

Abstract

The order parameter for the pure Yang-Mills phase transition is the Polyakov loop, which encodes the symmetries of the Z_N center of the SU(N) gauge group. The physical degrees of freedom of any asymptotically free gauge theory are hadronic states. Using the Yang-Mills trace anomaly and the exact Z_N symmetry we show that the transfer of information from the order parameter to hadrons is complete.

Comments: To appear in the proceedings of the QCD@Work 2003-International Workshop on QCD, Conversano Italy, 14-18 June 2003