Numerical evidence for fractional topological objects in SU(3) gauge theory

Abstract

The continued development of models that propose the existence of fractional topological objects in the Yang-Mills vacuum has called for a quantitative method to study the topological structure of SU(N) gauge theory. We present an original numerical algorithm that can identify distinct topological objects in the nontrivial ground-state fields and approximate the net charge contained within them. This analysis is performed for SU(3) color at a range of temperatures crossing the deconfinement phase transition, allowing for an assessment of how the topological structure evolves with temperature. We find a promising consistency with the instanton-dyon model for the structure of the QCD vacuum at finite temperature. Several other quantities, such as object density and radial size, are also analyzed to elicit a further understanding of the fundamental structure of ground-state gluon fields. Published by the American Physical Society 2024