Half-integer topological charges below and above the deconfinement transition?

Abstract

For pure SU(2) lattice gauge theory at finite T, by the help of the cooling method, we search for classical (approximate) solutions having non-trivial holonomy at the spatial boundary. We identify various typical objects and provide their relative frequency of occurence for the confinement and deconfinement phases. Among the configurations obtained we see also the dissociated BPS monopole pairs recently discussed by van Baal and collaborators.