Putting centre dominance under the microscope

Abstract

We make various short points on the phenomenon of centre dominance in SU(2). The Z(2) dominance seen in Wilson loops is related to the loop distribution and to half-odd-integer representations of the group. The distributions also make it clear that, in this picture, the requirement of vortices for confinement is essentially trivial. We confirm that the same effect appears in the positive plaquette model. The simple random vortex picture is shown to give a substantial fraction of the string tension.