A picture of the Yang-Mills deconfinement transition and its lattice verification

Abstract

In the framework of the center vortex picture of confinement, the nature of the deconfining phase transition is studied. Using recently developed techniques which allow to associate a center vortex configuration with any given lattice gauge configuration, it is demonstrated that the confining phase is a phase in which vortices percolate, whereas the deconfined phase is a phase in which vortices cease to percolate if one considers an appropriate slice of space-time.