An Introduction to the Confinement Problem

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   • Jeff Greensite

   Pages 1-2

3. Global Symmetry, Local Symmetry, and the Lattice

   • Jeff Greensite

   Pages 3-19

4. What is Confinement?

   • Jeff Greensite

   Pages 21-34

5. Order Parameters for Confinement

   • Jeff Greensite

   Pages 35-48

6. Properties of the Confining Force

   • Jeff Greensite

   Pages 49-54

7. Confinement from Center Vortices I

   • Jeff Greensite

   Pages 55-86

8. Confinement from Center Vortices II

   • Jeff Greensite

   Pages 87-100

9. Monopoles, Calorons, and Dual Superconductivity

   • Jeff Greensite

   Pages 101-129

10. Coulomb Confinement

    • Jeff Greensite

    Pages 131-147

11. Ghosts, Gluons, and Dyson–Schwinger Equations

    • Jeff Greensite

    Pages 149-158

12. Large-N, Planar Diagrams, and the Gluon-Chain Model

    • Jeff Greensite

    Pages 159-171

13. The Vacuum Wavefunctional

    • Jeff Greensite

    Pages 173-189

14. Anti-deSitter Space and Confinement

    • Jeff Greensite

    Pages 191-205

15. Concluding Remarks

    • Jeff Greensite

    Pages 207-208

16. Back Matter

    Pages 209-211

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This book addresses the confinement problem, which quite generally deals with the behavior of non-abelian gauge theories, and the force which is mediated by gauge fields, at large distances. The word “confinement” in the context of hadronic physics originally referred to the fact that quarks and gluons appear to be trapped inside mesons and baryons, from which they cannot escape. There are other, and possibly deeper meanings that can be attached to the term, and these will be explored in this book. Although the confinement problem is far from solved, much is now known about the general features of the confining force, and there are a number of very well motivated theories of confinement which are under active investigation. This volume gives a both pedagogical and concise introduction and overview of the main ideas in this field, their attractive features, and, as appropriate, their shortcomings.

• Coulomb confinement
• Wilson loops
• gluon-chain model
• quark confinement

From the reviews:

“The author presumably realized that, with not much effort and starting from those notes, he could write a diluted and more accessible version expanding and updating the material. This excellent book on confinement is the result. ... This is indeed a very good book. I enjoyed reading it and … I learned a lot from it. … It is definitely a research book that provides readers with a guide to the most updated confinement models.” (Giuseppe Nardelli, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2012 d)

“This volume gives both a pedagogical and a concise, correct introduction along with an overview of the main ideas involved in such an important area, their fascinating features as well as some limitations. The book is beautifully produced with special emphasis on the relevance of center symmetry and lattice formulation as well as an introduction to current research on confinement.” (Paninjukunnath Achuthan, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1217, 2011)

• , Dept. Physics & Astronomy, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, USA

  Jeff Greensite

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