Visualisation of Centre Vortex Structure

Abstract

The centre vortex structure of the SU (3) gauge field vacuum is explored through the use of novel visualisation techniques. The lattice is partitioned into 3D time slices, and vortices are identified by locating plaquettes with non-trivial centre phases. Vortices are illustrated by rendering vortex lines that pierce these non-trivial plaquettes. Non-trivial plaquettes with one dimension in the suppressed time direction are rendered by identifying the visible spatial link. These visualisations highlight the frequent presence of singular points and reveal an important role for branching points in SU (3) gauge theory in creating high topological charge density regimes. Visualisations of the topological charge density are presented, and an investigation into the correlation between vortex structures and topological charge density is conducted. The results provide new insight into the mechanisms by which centre vortices generate non-trivial gauge field topology. This work demonstrates the utility of visualisations in conducting centre vortex studies, presenting new avenues with which to investigate this perspective of the QCD vacuum.

Emergent Structure in QCD

“…A more detailed presentation of this work providing access to the full 3D models is available in Ref. [21]. It is interesting to reflect on the discoveries made in Ref.…”

“…It is interesting to reflect on the discoveries made in Ref. [21] through visualisation. These include:…”

“…Lattice sites with this property are called singular points and are illustrated by spheres. The sphere colour indicates the number of times the sheet adjacent to a point can generate a topological charge contribution [21].…”