Magnetic monopole clusters, and monopole dominance after smoothing in the maximally Abelian gauge of SU(2)

Abstract

In the maximally Abelian gauge of SU(2), the clusters of monopole current are found to divide into two distinct classes. The largest cluster permeates the lattice, has a density that scales and produces the string tension. The remaining clusters possess an approximate 1/l^3 number density distribution (l is the cluster length), their radii vary as \sqrt l and their total current density does not scale. Their contribution to the string tension is compatible with being exactly zero. Their number density can be thought of as arising from an underlying scale invariant distribution. This suggests that they are not related to instantons. We also observe that when we locally smoothen the SU(2) fields by cooling, the string tension due to monopoles becomes much smaller than the SU(2) string tension. This dramatic loss of Abelian/monopole dominance occurs even after just one cooling step.