Confinement Physics in Quantum Chromodynamics

Abstract

We study the confinement physics in QCD in the maximally abelian (MA) gauge using the SU(2) lattice QCD, based on the dual-superconductor picture. In the MA gauge, off-diagonal gluon components are forced to be small, and the off-diagonal angle variable $\chi_\mu(s)$ tends to be random. Within the random-variable approximation for $\chi_\mu(s)$, we analytically prove the perimeter law of the off-diagonal gluon contribution to the Wilson loop in the MA gauge, which leads to abelian dominance on the string tension. To clarify the origin of abelian dominance for the long-range physics, we study the charged-gluon propagator in the MA gauge using the lattice QCD, and find that the effective mass $m_{ch} \simeq 0.9 {\rm GeV}$ of the charged gluon is induced by the MA gauge fixing. In the MA gauge, there appears the macroscopic network of the monopole world-line covering the whole system, which would be identified as monopole condensation at a large scale. To prove monopole condensation in the field-theoretical manner, we derive the inter-monopole potential from the dual Wilson loop in the monopole part of QCD, which carries the nonperturbative QCD aspects, in the MA gauge. The dual gluon mass is evaluated as $m_B \simeq $0.5GeV in the monopole part in the infrared region, which is the evidence of the dual Higgs mechanism by monopole condensation.