A topological interpretation of the color charge

Abstract

We develop a theory on a topologically non-trivial manifold which leads to different vacuum backgrounds at the field level. The different colors of the same quark flavor live in different backgrounds generated by the action of the torsion subgroup of H^2(M,2\pi Z) on H^2(M,2\pi Z) itself. This topological separation leads to a quark confinement mechanism which does not apply to the baryons as they turn out to live on the same vacuum state. The theory makes some topological assumptions on the spacetime manifold which are compared with the available data on the topology of the Universe.