Perturbative Aspects of the Deconfinement Transition

This book offers an original view of the color confinement/deconfinement transition that occurs in non-abelian gauge theories at high temperature and/or densities. It is grounded on the fact that the standard Faddeev-Popov gauge-fixing procedure in the Landau gauge is incomplete. The proper analysis of the low energy properties of non-abelian theories in this gauge requires, therefore, the extension of the gauge-fixing procedure, beyond the Faddeev-Popov recipe.

The author reviews various applications of one such extension, based on the Curci-Ferrari model, with a special focus on the confinement/deconfinement transition, first in the case of pure Yang-Mills theory, and then, in a formal regime of Quantum Chromodynamics where all quarks are considered heavy. He shows that most qualitative aspects and also many quantitative features of the deconfinement transition can be accounted for within the model, with only one additional parameter. Moreover, these features emerge in a systematic and controlled perturbative expansion, as opposed to what would happen in a perturbative expansion within the Faddeev-Popov model.

The book is also intended as a thorough and pedagogical introduction to background field gauge techniques at finite temperature and/or density. In particular, it offers a new and promising view on the way these techniques might be applied at finite temperature. The material aims at graduate students or researchers who wish to deepen their understanding of the confinement/deconfinement transition from an analytical perspective. Basic knowledge of gauge theories at finite temperature is required, although the text is designed in a self-contained manner, with most concepts and tools introduced when needed. At the end of each chapter, a series of exercises is proposed to master the subject.

Gives a self-contained presentation of an advanced topic at graduate level With a special focus on the Curci-Ferrari model and its applications Enriched with chapter-end exercises and solutions

Autorentext

Urko Reinosa obtained his PhD in Theoretical Physics from Ecole Polytechnique (France) in 2003 after three years spent working at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the CEA-Saclay (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique). For the following four years he covered postdoctoral positions in various international institutions like the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Technical University of Vienna (Austria) and the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Ruprecht-Karl University of Heidelberg (Germany). He is currently a permanent research fellow at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in France where his research activity focuses on the properties of strongly interacting matter.

Inhalt
General introduction .- Faddeev-Popov gauge fixing and the Curci-Ferrari model.- Deconfinement transition and center symmetry.- Background Field Gauges: States and Symmetries.- Background Field Gauges: Weyl chambers.- Yang-Mills deconfinement transition from the Curci-Ferrari model at leading order.- Yang-Mills deconfinement transition from the Curci-Ferrari model at next-to-leading order.- More on the relation between the center symmetry group and the deconfinement transition.- Background field gauges: adding quarks and density.- QCD decofinement transition in the heavy quark regime.- A novel look at background field methods at finite temperature.- Conclusions and outlook.- Appendix.