Gauge Invariant Monopoles in Lattice SU(2) Gluodynamics

Abstract

We consider lattice implementation of the recently proposed gauge invariant definition of the monopole charge. Because of the lattice discretization the algorithm gives rise to specific lattice artifacts and an effective Ising model. The Ising-model problem might in principle be solved and we discuss the role of the Maximal Abelian gauge in this respect. The lattice artifacts are much more difficult to deal with since they are mixed up with monopoles thus obscuring the physical observables. Nevertheless, it is possible to extract the density of physical monopoles which seems to scale correctly towards the continuum limit.