Deconfinement phase transitions in external fields

Abstract

We compare vacuum dynamics of abelian versus non abelian lattice gauge theories in presence of external fields. We find that the deconfinement temperature of non abelian theories depends on the strength of a constant abelian chromomagnetic field end eventually goes to zero. On the contrary such an effect is not shared by abelian theories. We argue on the relevance of this result to understand the QCD vacuum.