Center Dominance, Center Vortices, and Confinement

Abstract

We present a variety of numerical data supporting the Center Vortex theory of confinement. A method is introduced for identifying the location of center vortices, in thermalized gauge-field configurations generated by lattice Monte Carlo. Fluctuations in the number of such vortices, linked to fundamental representation Wilson loops, appear to be responsible for the asymptotic string tension extracted from those loops.

Invited talk by J. Greensite at the Nato Workshop "New Developments in Quantum Field Theory," Zakopane, Poland (June 1997). 19 pages, including 21 figures, Latex2e. Uses plenum.sty