A study of center and chiral symmetry realization in thermal $\mathcal{N}=1$ super Yang-Mills theory using the gradient flow

Abstract

The realization of center and chiral symmetries in $\mathcal{N}=1$ super Yang-Mills theory (SYM) is investigated on a four-dimensional Euclidean lattice by means of Monte Carlo methods. At zero temperature this theory is expected to confine external fundamental charges and to have a non-vanishing gaugino condensate, which breaks the non-anomalous Z$_{2\textrm{N}_{c}}$ chiral symmetry. In previous studies at finite temperatures, the phase transitions corresponding to deconfinement and chiral restoration were observed to occur at roughly the same critical temperature for SU(2) gauge group. We find further evidences for this observation from new measurements at smaller lattice spacings using the fermion gradient flow, and we discuss the agreement of our findings with conjectures from superstring theory. The implementation of the gradient flow technique allows us also to estimate, for the first time, the condensate at zero temperatures and zero gaugino mass with Wilson fermions.