Center Vortices at N > 4 Colors

Abstract

We discuss two issues related to the physics of center vortices in pure SU(N) lattice gauge theory at large N: (1) Center vortices are stable classical solutions of the Wilson action, as well as of a wide class of improved lattice actions, for any N > 4. (2) The natural scaling of k-string tensions at large N, in the vortex picture of confinement, is σ(k)=k σ(1). This is the common large N limit of Casimir and Sine Law scaling. The crucial feature for explaining this behavior is the existence of center monopoles.