The World as a Dual Josephson Junction

Abstract

We examine some of the implications of the field-theoretical mechanism for the localization of gauge fields on hypersurfaces in higher-dimensional bulk space-time. This mechanism exploits the analogy between confinement and dual superconductivity. In the simplest case of a photon localized on a (2+1)-dimensional surface in a (3+1)-dimensional bulk, we argue that the system behaves like a dual Josephson junction. This implies that the effective gauge theory on the surface is not free, but displays weak confinement with a linear potential. We comment on the relevance of our results for the realistic case of a (3+1)-dimensional surface in a space-time with one or more extra dimensions.

Comments: 10 pages, 1 figure, minor clarifications added