Thermal monopole condensation in QCD with physical quark masses

Abstract

Thermal monopoles, identified after Abelian projection as magnetic currents wrapping non-trivially around the thermal circle, are studied in $N_f = 2+1$ QCD at the physical point. The distribution in the number of wrappings, which in pure gauge theories points to a condensation temperature coinciding with deconfinement, points in this case to around 275 MeV, almost twice the QCD crossover temperature $T_c$; similar indications emerge looking for the formation of a percolating current cluster. The possible relation with other non-perturbative phenomena observed above $T_c$ is discussed.